Is hands-free technology really any safer?

The country is turning its back on the use of hand-held phones in cars from November, but is hands-free technology really a safer option?

Conventional wisdom says yes. With wireless technology such as Bluetooth becoming commonplace, it's now possible to seal that business deal, order that chinese takeaway, and check what your best mate's doing later on.

All with your hands and eyes working in perfect co-ordination to perform "basic" tasks like driving home through rush-hour traffic.

Or is it that simple?

Is one's mind actually still on the road? A student in experimental psychology did a study in the US that suggested hands-free cellphones are not safer at all - and indeed may even be more dangerous than hand-held.

The study was reported in the Science Daily, a journal which has published several articles on the topic.

Yoko Ishigami presented her paper, "Is a hands-free phone safer than a hand-held phone?" at the national conference of the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals held in early 2008 in Whistler, B.C. She was awarded first place in a national student paper competition.

"Talking and listening are such complicated tasks, especially if you're thinking ahead to what you're going to say," said Ms Ishigami, an international student from Japan. "The conversation is what takes all your attention."

She surveyed current scientific research on cellphone use, showing that talking on the phone, regardless of phone type, has negative impacts on performance, especially when the driver is confronted by complex or unpredictable situations.

Performance while using a hands-free phone was rarely found to be better than that using a hand-held phone.

Some studies found drivers were very cautious when using a hand-held phone. For example, many respondents would pull over to finish a call - something they wouldn't bother to do if they were on hands-free. Hands-free, it seemed, gave them a sense of invincibility.

"People tend to be over confident with hands-free and drive faster. They're thinking, 'I'm OK because I've got on the headgear," she told Science Daily. "Whereas if they were driving with a hand-held phone, they tend to drive slower."

The summary that emerged out of the report is not good news for multi-taskers who like to combine getting from A to B with chatting. Considering all the research, Ishigami's conclusion was clear: all phone use while driving should be banned.

There's no doubt use is widespread. We've got into some pretty bad habits.

A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, based on research carried out in NSW and WA, found that 60 per cent of drivers owned up to using a mobile phone while behind the wheel.

Men, younger drivers and metropolitan residents were found to be the worst offenders. In addition to talking on the phone, 12 per cent of drivers admit to writing text messages, whilst among young drivers, over 30 per cent write text messages while on the road.

Young drivers were almost five times more likely than older drivers to use a phone while driving.

Australia is one of many western countries that have banned the use of a cell phone when driving, unless used with some form of hands-free kit (see link at right for the list).

So far, several provinces in Canada, and the states of California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington in United States have banned hand-held cellphones while driving.

India bans both hand-held and hands-free phones while driving.

The problem is that our brains, while being amazing organs, are not supercomputers with terabytes of RAM memory.

It takes a certain amount of our grey matter to drive well and safely. Simply put, if that stock of available brain cells is diminished because a bunch of them have been summonsed away to chat to one's nearest and dearest about what's for dinner tonight, what's left is not enough to process all the inbound data - cornering, other vehicles, traffic signs and lights, etc - coming our way while at the wheel.

A study at the University of California showed that braking time was impaired by about .4 of a second if the driver was talking on a hands-free phone when sudden and unexpected stopping was required.

That .4 of a second at 100kph ploughs you right into the rear of that hatchback in front of you, sorry to say.

So whilst the government looks to have got this one right, for absolute road safety, it may need to go one step further.