First proof: driving while talking on phone is a hazard

The good news is that cellular phones do not cause brain cancer. The bad news? They are unfortunately a cause of car accidents. In fact, according to research by Drs. Donald A. Redelmeier and Robert J. Tibshirani, driving with the use of a cell phone can be likened to driving with a blood alcohol level of about 0.10 per cent. The chances of getting into an car accident while using a cellular phone is nearly equal to the chances of having an accident while slightly drunk. Another factor in the chance of having an accident is the topic and content of conversation: “A person who is not talking on the phone cannot become distracted by a shouting match with a boss or a significant other.” Thus, the risk gets even greater if the person is discussing something important or especially is in the middle of an argument. The researchers, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and a statistician at the same school, ran a study of 699 drivers who had cellular phones and who had also been involved in an accident. They analyzed 26,798 phone calls on cellular phones and determined that the risk of having an accident quadrupled when drivers spoke on the phone. With heated discussions, this rate is even higher. Dr. Malcom Maclure and Dr. Murray A. Mittleman of the Harvard Medical School have concluded that, with the growing usage of car phones, accidents caused by cell phones could account for between 0.6 and 1.2 per cent of all car accidents by the year 2000. On the other hand, several people used their cellular phones to call the police after their accidents. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association made sure to note this point. Though they saw the statistical