Using a mobile phone to send text messages while driving is as dangerous as driving with an illegal blood alcohol level , the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) said in response to a new NRMA Insurance survey.

AMTA Chief Executive Officer, Chris Althaus, said a new NRMA Insurance survey had found that motorists who text message while driving looked at their mobile phones 38 times for 1.4 seconds each glance while sending a single message.

The study says a driver travelling at 60km/h had their eyes off the road for 22-metres – almost five car lengths.

Mr Althaus said: “These figures graphically illustrate just how dangerous text message is while driving. It is completely unacceptable and there is research from the United States that shows that the risks involved are of the same order as driving with an illegal level of alcohol in the driver’s blood.”

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s driving study last year based on real-world driving data found text messaging resulted in an 23 times increased driver risk of a crash or near crash event than non-distracted driving.

An Australian study which compared the blood alcohol levels of drivers involved in actual car crashes found the risk of an accident was increased by 25 times at a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08.

Non-texting functions of mobile phones have not been shown to present this level of risk in any research.

Mr Althaus said although texting was as dangerous as driving after drinking, drivers’ use of non-texting mobile functions were not comparable to driving and alcohol use.

The Virginia Tech study found that talking and listening to a mobile phone while driving had a risk of 1.3 times higher than non-distracted driving and dialling a mobile was 2.8 times riskier.

This compared to a 1.4 times higher risk when drivers reached for objects in the car.

Mr Althaus said: “While equating text messaging with drunk driving is based on real-world scientific data, attempts to lump other mobile functions, such as listening and talking on legal hands-free devices , in the same category as texting are not supported by the facts.

“People who make such sweeping statements that mobile phone use (non-texting) is as dangerous as driving after drinking run the risk of taking some of the stigma away from the very real and serious effects of driving and alcohol.

“Figures from the US show that if talking on a mobile phone was as risky as driving while drunk, the number of fatal crashes would increase by 50% in the past 10 years instead of being relatively stable.”

AMTA’s safe driving tips can be viewed here.