Wired on wheels

>> Your days of driving and phoning could be numbered

by GEORGE MADDUX

On a bright October morning, 23-year-old Tracy Martin was cruising east on Sherbrooke in her reliable Chevy Sprint. Nearing Greene, she stopped as the car ahead of her backed into a parking spot. "Out of nowhere this car plowed right into us. We went flying and hit the car in front of us and came back down," recalls Martin. "If we hadn't just put our seat belts on a block earlier, we would have gone through the windshield for sure."

A downtown executive in a late-model, leather-upholstered Volvo came out, cell phone in hand. "He was very apologetic. It was clear that his talking on the phone while driving was what distracted him."

The driver's chitchat mishap caused Martin a sprained neck and back as well as a chronically aching hip. Her boyfriend, also in the car, has since been suffering chronic headaches. As well, the Sprint was damaged beyond repair and Martin was compensated only $500. It wasn't enough to replace the vehicle, and thanks to the cell-phone wielding driver, Martin has had to suspend her practice as a massage therapist who travels to her clients' homes. "I don't think we can handle that much stimulus, of talking on the phone while we drive," says Martin. "I tried it once, and I wasn't very comfortable doing it."

Indeed last week a major study conducted by the Transport Safety Laboratory of the Université de Montréal has confirmed the suspicions and anecdotal evidence supplied by people like Martin, who suspect that talking on a cell phone while driving causes accidents.

Austria, Brazil, Italy, Norway, Israel, Singapore and Taiwan are among the countries that have already banned the practice. According to the University of Michigan, cell-phone related accidents went down 75 per cent after the practice was banned in Japan. Other places, such as Belgium, the U.K. and Chile have legislation in the works, while Canadian provinces claim to be waiting for the results of studies before deciding on legislation.

The study, based on the response of 36,000 drivers who filled out a questionnaire suggests that those who use cell phones while driving have a 38 per cent higher risk of accident. Heavy users, defined as making over 135 calls a month from behind the wheel, have an accident rate double the norm. One of three male drivers and half of all female drivers who use the phone while driving actually concede that the phone is a distraction that affects their performance.

The study indicates that driving while operating a cellular phone could be considered the third highest factor contributing to accidents after alcohol and young drivers.

Officials for the Societé de l'assurance automobile du Québec stated that the study results will be weighed against the benefits of having a cellular phone in the car before any formal rules will be laid out. "We always knew it was a distraction, that's obvious. But to what degree does it justify regulation?" says spokesman Roch Tremblay.

Until a decision is made on whether you'll be allowed to continue to rap and roll, Jason Miles, a downtown driving instructor, instructs drivers to stay off the buzzer while driving and to "keep a distance from any driver not acting in a safe manner. A lot of cell-phone drivers think they can do it because they're better [drivers] than others. That makes me laugh."