on cellphones, an increasing body of research suggests the legislation will accomplish little. The risk doesn't stem from whether one or both hands are on the wheel, the research suggests. It's whether the driver's mind is somewhere else.
The biggest danger is what's called "cognitive capture"-- or being blind to driving cues because one is absorbed in conversations, especially emotional ones.
"There's a common misperception that hands-free phones are safer, when the research clearly suggests that they they're both equally risky," said Arthur Goodwin, a researcher at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center.
California motorists will be required to use a hands-free device to talk on a cell phone starting July 1, under a new traffic safety law. Such laws are in effect in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Utah, Washington state and the District of Columbia.
Hands-free laws have come to be seen as the most politically feasible way to address the dangers of driver distraction from cellphone use.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sought to reassure drivers that they did need not hang up their phones when he spoke at a signing ceremony for the California law in 2006. "You don't have to stop talking on your cellphone, but use a headset or use a speaker system, and you will be fine."
Some backers agree that new rules are not ideal. Yet given the political unfeasibility of banning all cellphone use in cars, they contend that requiring motorists to have their hands free to deal with driving is a major step in the right direction.
"There isn't a study in the world that says you're safer driving with a cellphone clutched to your ear than when you are driving with both hands on the wheel," said state Sen. Joe Simitian of Palo Alto, sponsor of the California measure.
But Goodwin and other scientists say that hands-free laws could make things worse by encouraging drivers to make more or longer calls.
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