Hands-free use no safer than hand-held use in the car

15 February 2024

While hands-free mobile phone use by drivers is not illegal, a vast body of research has shown it is no safer than hand-held phone use.

“We need to talk about hands-free” is a programme aimed at police officers, who are at the frontline of dealing with the devastation that distracted driving can cause, to ensure they are fully informed.

There were 470 officers from England and Wales that took part in an interactive video task designed by researchers at the OU.

  Are you a focused driver?  on the OU’s OpenLearn platform  can be used by anyone who wants to understand just how distracted they are when they use their phone while driving.

Officers’ attitudes changed. Following the task, officer attitudes to the safety of legal hands-free mobile phone use by drivers dramatically changed, with 88% reporting that, in future encounters with phone-using drivers, they would explain the dangers of all phone use, not just hand-held use.

More research about driver distraction can be found here.