The effect of mobile telephone use on traffic accident risk

About 9000 car drivers who had recently reported an accident to their insurance company, responded to a postal questionnaire about mobile telephone use and other distractors during the last accident. Mobile telephoning during the accident was reported by 0.62 per cent of guilty drivers and 0.31 per cent of innocent drivers. Mobile telephones were estimated to be used in 0.82 per cent of the accidents, which is about 60 per cent higher than the expected proportion estimated on the basis of "induced exposure". The number of accidents during telephoning was too low for significant differences between handsfree and hand-held telephones to appear. Rear-end collision is the most frequent accident type during telephoning. Both radio and CD player cause more accidents than the mobile telephone.