Mobile telephone use among Melbourne drivers: a preventable exposure to injury risk

To the Editor: In “In this issue” of the Journal of 4 August 2003,1 you write regarding “Dialling drivers” that “the jury is still out on the health effects of mobile phones”.

Well, the jury is back with a guilty verdict. In June 2003, Injury Prevention2 quoted an evaluation by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis that “the use of cell phones by drivers may result in about 2600 deaths, 330 000 moderate to critical injuries, 240 000 minor injuries and 1.5 million instances of property damage in America per year”.3

Taylor et al suggest, “Further interventions aimed at decreasing mobile phone use among drivers should be considered.”4

Occupational safety professionals consider that a worker not complying with the safe practices for using a tool should be offered remedial education. If education fails, they stop the worker using that tool.

Wise parents also consider taking away a child’s toy until the child can learn to use it safely.

And so with mobile phones used while driving. Driver safety education is not very effective. Police have powers to impound items related to other offences, and so should have powers to impound mobile phones used when driving. The driver could then claim it, say, four weeks later, from the police station on payment of a fee-for-service to the police that covers, at least, the relative value of the expenses of the police. The driver would also incur demerit points. Repeated offences would mean they forfeit the phone or their licence.