By Mark Kimmich

Toronto, Ontario -- August 29, 2012 -- Cell phones don’t cause accidents, people cause accidents. According to a new study published by a team of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, people who use cell phones while behind the wheel are the same people who exhibit a host of other risky driving behaviours. Cell phone use may simply be a symptom of a deeper root problem: distracted driving.

The study, simply put, asked people to complete a questionnaire on their driving behaviours and then recorded different physiological responses once they got behind the wheel using a specially instrumented car. The car measured their heart rate, eye movement, and other physiological responses in an effort to measure overall “cognitive load.”

“In this study, we were trying to determine what the relationship really is between [the participants’] perceptions about their self-reported behaviours and their actual driving behaviours,” explains Bruce Mehler, a research scientist at MIT. “What really came out of it was that regardless if whether or not they have a cell phone in their hand, the tendency for people who reported using a cell phone frequently while driving was that they drive faster, spend more time in the left lane, change lanes more often, and have more high speed accelerating and braking events.”

There has already been doubt cast on the effectiveness of cell phone bans as they are notoriously difficult to enforce. In fact, according to Mehler, “Localities where cell phone bans are in effect don’t actually see accident rates reduced necessarily.” Moreover, accident rates have been declining for about the past decade generally.

Pete Karageorges, Manager Consumer and Industry Relations for Ontario at Insurance Bureau of Canada, sees cell phone bans as a step in the right direction. “We have supported cell phone bans in the past, but they are one factor among many that need to be addressed.” Karageorges added, “The challenge has always been to eliminate or minimize distractions.”

“We aren’t saying that cell phones are fine to use,” says Mehler. “In fact, there is evidence that they are an increased risk factor. But banning someone from using a cell phone isn’t in and of itself the whole story.”

“Part of what we were hoping would come out of this is that we’ll have a more substantive discussion around what people are doing when they’re driving. There needs to be increased enforcement of the cell phone bans, but that will still only get a percentage of the distracted driving.”