I know we have all heard the admonitions not to text or use hand-held cell phones while driving. Oprah even wrote an editorial in the New York Times. I installed a hands free device in my car several years ago in order to comply with California laws as well as to assume my role in assuring road safety to those in my car (mostly my dog) as well as on the road. A commentary in the April 15th issue of JAMA caught my attention and pointed out my inattention to the statistics that warn that even hands free devices result in accidents.

So here are the distracting statistics:

• 5,870 persons died (16% of all fatalities) in crashes involving driver distraction due to texting or use of mobile phones in 2009
• 515,000 individuals were injured in what are now called “distracted crashes”.
• 21% of all reported injury crashes involved distracted driving
• While dialing a mobile phone, drivers of light vehicles (cars, vans and pickup trucks) were 2.8 times more likely to crash or near crash than non-distracted drivers. (If they were commercial truck drivers this number rose to 5.9.)
• Texting is a disaster waiting to happen….the average person who texts while driving takes her eyes off the road for 4.6 to 6 seconds and is 23.2 times as likely to have a serious vehicular crash compared to a non-texting driver.

And here is what really got my attention:

Analysis of 125 studies confirmed that cell phone conversations while driving were associated with impaired reaction time and that there was NO difference in risk between hands-free and handheld phones! And according to the Highway Loss Data Institute (yes there is an institute for everything) the benefits of banning the use of hand-free phones are outweighed by the increased use of similarly distracting hands-free devices. They found no decrease in crashes in states that enacted handheld cellular phone bans when compared to states that did not.

As I and my family update our cars, we are bestowed with more and more electronic gadgets. I can now do everything but write this column while driving… but I guess I won’t try. The good news is that using a GPS (with verbal instructions) is safer than trying to read a map. So I can tell my husband (who always gets lost) that his GPS is relatively safe. But the bad news is that I will not try to save time and answer patient queries while driving but instead will instruct you to call back once I have reached my destination.

Our cars should be declared no phone or messaging zones. For your sake, mine and all the other drivers and pedestrians on the road, I hope you will consider the above stats and turn your i-phones, blackberries, droids and i-pads off while driving.

I know this isn’t a gynecologic subject, but it does allow us to tell our spouses, adult children, friends (and ourselves) to slow down, be alert and use a seat belt….and  for goodness sake stop talking on that handheld or even Bluetooth connected phone while driving. In 2005 (the most recent year for which data are available) 45,520 deaths in the United States were related to motor vehicle accidents. I wish I could  prominently display this number on my window every time I see a driver talking on their phone, turning to the back seat to talk to children or other passengers or (and this could be generically female) putting on make-up while driving!