Dangers of using hands-free devices while driving

When distracted driving related to devices is discussed, it’s often with an eye on handheld phone use — drivers who have accidents while texting or holding their phones during calls. That has also largely been the accident risk addressed in legislation. As of this writing, 28 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories prohibit drivers from using handheld cellphones for any use. Forty-eight states, D.C. and three U.S. territories have bans on texting while driving.¹

So far, no states have bans on hands-free use of cellphones or other devices while driving, though many states do have total bans on cellphone use for drivers under certain ages or those with permits or intermediate licenses.²

The heavy focus of safety efforts on handheld phone use and texting might seem appropriate, as those actions clearly result in drivers not having both hands on the wheel or — when dialing or texting — their eyes on the road. However, research shows the cognitive distraction of driving while speaking on a phone (regardless of handheld or hands-free use) or using voice-activated controls or virtual “personal assistants” like Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant causes serious, life-threatening dangers.

It can be difficult to impossible to determine when distracted driving was the precise reason for a fatality (injuries, thanks to questions asked by police at the scene of an accident, are a little easier to track), but statistics show it is having a deadly impact.

Distracted driving was the cause of 3,522 deaths and 362,415 injuries in 2021 (the most recent full year for their published estimates) according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.³ In a 2022 survey, over 20% or respondents admitted using at least one smartphone-based distraction (including video calls, watching videos and using social media) while driving.⁴

Though much good work has been done by so many to combat distracted driving, it is surprising that, overall, there has been little attention to both longstanding and more recent research that shows using hands-free devices does not equate to significantly safer driving.

You might be “half-blind” on the road

The National Safety Council (NSC) published a report more than a decade ago with findings culled from a range of respected researchers that should alarm anyone still using hands-free devices while driving. They include:

• Drivers using hands-free and handheld cellphones fail to see up to 50 percent of the information in their driving environment. This is known as “inattention blindness” and causes drivers to miss exits and run through red lights and stop signs.⁵  
• Drivers using cellphones (again handheld or hands-free) had slower reaction times than drivers impaired by alcohol at a .08 blood alcohol concentration, the legal intoxication limit in most states.⁵
• Listening to the other person during a cellphone conversation decreased activity in an area of the brain associated with driving by 37 percent.⁵

Considering “inattention blindness” more deeply, imagine some of the information that might fall out of the 50 percent of information your brain is processing: a change in speed limit, an accident on the side of an icy road or a child darting out unexpectedly into the path of your vehicle.

In 2020, the NSC reinforced its message in even stronger words in a report advocating for the ban of cellphone and interactive technology use by drivers. “Hands-free devices and voice command systems are not safer,” the report declared, explaining these systems, like their handheld counterparts, “create a cognitive distraction as the driver mentally engages with interactive tasks.”⁶

Multitasking is a myth, and a dangerous one when driving

Drivers, and sometimes the companies they work for, may see the use of a phone while driving as part of vital multitasking. However, that same NSC report from 2020 dismisses the very notion of multitasking: “The human brain is not capable of multitasking, or doing two things at once. Instead, the brain is constantly attention-switching between the two tasks, never giving full focus to either one.”⁶

A 2013 article in Inc. cited a 2010 study by French neuroscientists that supports the NSC statement, showing not only that the human brain wasn’t designed to multitask, but that multitasking can actually have harmful effects on brain function.⁷

Why passengers don’t pose the same distraction

You might ask, “Isn’t talking with someone else in the car just as dangerous as talking on the phone?” The short answer seems to be “no.” While chatting with a passenger can certainly pose a distraction risk, psychologists at the University of Sussex in England published a study in 2016 indicating it’s less risky than cellphone conversations because passengers tend to moderate the discussion when road hazards become apparent and they share non-verbal cues that create a less cognitively demanding conversation.⁸

Without these visual cues, the conversation requires more attentiveness on the part of the driver. Naturally, the person on the other end of the phone is unaware of quickly changing travel conditions or certain other factors affecting the driver and cannot react accordingly.

When you’re talking to someone you can’t see, you imagine them visually. The University of Sussex study showed drivers immersed in conversations that triggered their visual imagination detected fewer road hazards than those who were not. They actually failed to see certain hazards directly in front of them and focused on a smaller area of the road ahead than drivers not involved in such conversations.⁸ Listening to music or a radio program can also present distraction risks, but research indicates those activities are not as mentally demanding as a two-way conversation.⁹

Raising awareness of hands-free risks can save lives

The good news is that thanks largely to ever-improving safety measures in car manufacturing and modern safety-assistance technology, the rate of crash deaths per capita in the U.S. is actually 39% lower than it was four decades ago.¹⁰ But distracted driving deaths and injuries are largely preventable, making them all the more tragic.

The research on hands-free device use should inspire us all to think more broadly about driving distractions. People are more tied to their mobile technology than ever before and there are no indications that will change anytime soon.

Legislators and voters need to be aware of all the risks when these laws are considered. Companies need to examine what they ask drivers to do beyond safely operating their vehicles. And all of us, whether driving for personal or professional reasons, need to realize that hands-free technology is not the solution to our growing distracted driving problem.

Zurich Resilience Solutions (ZRS) offers distracted driver solutions and driver safety trainings. Find out about these and ZRS’ other Casualty Risk Management Services.

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1. National Conference of State Legislatures. “Distracted Driving | Cellphone Use.” 5 July 2023.
2. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). “Cellphone use laws.” September 2023.
3. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - National Center for Statistics and Analysis. “Traffic Safety Facts – Research Note: Distracted driving in 2021.” (Report No. DOT HS 813 443). May 2023.
4. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). “Distracted Driving.” June 2023.
5. National Safety Council. “Understanding the distracted brain: Why driving while using hands-free cell phones is risky behavior.” April 2012.
6. National Safety Council. “Understanding driver distraction: How banning use of cell phones and interactive in-vehicle technology while driving can save lives.” 2020.
7. Lapowsky, Issie. “Don't Multitask: Your Brain Will Thank You.” Inc. 8 April 2013.
8. Briggs, Gemma F., Graham J. Hole and Michael F. Land. “Imagery-inducing distraction leads to cognitive tunneling and deteriorated driving performance.” University of Sussex. 2016.
9. National Safety Council. “Mental Distraction Myth Busters.” 2017.
10. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). “Fatality Facts 2021: Yearly snapshot.” Accessed 6 September 2023.