Voice activated or single button push Bluetooth hands-free systems which do not require drivers to take their eyes off the road are the key to safer mobile phone use, a leading US road safety expert and researcher told the Australia road safety community this week.

Dr Thomas Dingus, Director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, told the Australasian College of Road Safety conference in Melbourne that talking or listening on a mobile phone did not pose a significant risk for drivers.

The view that drivers where distracted by their conversations was not evident in VTTI naturalistic research and the key factor which led to distraction-related accidents was drivers taking their eyes off the road.

Dr Dingus has fitted hundreds of vehicles with cars with video cameras, eye trackers and sensors to gauge the impacts of fatigue and distractions, such as mobile phones.

His research conducted for the US Department of Transport investigated real world driver behaviour and crashes and near crashes for more than a year resulting in nearly three million kilometres or 43,000 hours of driving data.

The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) sponsored Dr Dingus’ visit to Australia.

AMTA Chief Executive Officer, Chris Althaus, said it was important for law makers and traffic authorities to have the latest cutting-edge scientific research for evidence-based approaches when framing policies with the potential to save lives on the road.

“AMTA is committed to promoting safe and responsible use of mobile phones and Dr Dingus has pioneered new methods in studying driver distractions, which have the potential to give new insights into safer driving on our roads,” he said.

Dr Dingus’ key findings he presented to the conference are:

• 10% of drivers create roughly 50% of the crash risk.

• Distraction and inattention are greatly underestimated as a cause of crashes.

• However, if you are awake and looking at something you almost never hit it.

• Teens are involved in crashes or near crashes while distracted four times more often than adults and this could lead to an epidemic if not addressed.

• Fatigue is a much larger crash risk problem than previously thought.

He also said the often-expressed view that talking on a mobile phone is worse than drunk driving was not supported by his extensive research and had the potential to undermine community views on the dangers of drink driving.