MOTORISTS using a mobile telephone while they were driving are four times more likely to be involved in a collision, the IMO conference was told yesterday.
Dr Declan Bedford of the IMO's public health doctor committee said the possibility of accident was quadrupled if a driver was making or receiving a call, regardless of whether it was a hands free or hand held call.
The study in the New England Journal of Medicine said one possible reason for this was that motor vehicle collisions result from a driver's limitations "with regard to attention rather than dexterity". Dr Bedford said new regulations need to be introduced.
"I saw a man the other day travelling at speed and he had a mobile phone at one ear and he was also taking notes on the steering wheel. The number of mobile phone users in this country is going to increase so there is a likelihood of increased carnage as a result of their use while people are driving," he said.