A myth-busting video has been produced to decrease distraction-based collisions for fleet drivers.
Funded by The Road Safety Trust, the video was developed by the Kier Group, Kier Foundation and Nottingham Trent University.
The accompanying report explains that while hands-free calls are legal, multiple studies have demonstrated that they can be just as distracting as hand-held calls. With road safety campaigns, car manufacturers and the police touting hands-free communication as a safer alternative to hand-held calls, the paper highlights the difficulties fleets may have implementing policies that ban calls while driving.
The project identified “myths” around hands-free calls by surveying over 400 drivers and consulting an expert focus group. These were then debunked in the road safety video. Five myths were identified as key beliefs that contribute to the usage of hands-free mobile devices while driving. These were:
- Hands-free is legal, so it must be safe
- Driving is ‘dead time’
- Hands-free is safe because your eyes are on the road and hands are on the wheel
- Hands-free is no different to talking to a passenger
- I need to use hand-free communication for work
Speaking on the video, Chief executive of The Road Safety Trust, Ruth Purdie said: “…This resource can play a key role in helping organisations to keep their drivers safe on the roads, such is their responsibility. We encourage them to make use of it.”
The effectiveness of the resource was evaluated in a study that compared attitudes to mobile phone use (hand-held and hands-free) between two groups of drivers; one group that watched the video and another that watched an unrelated road safety video.
After watching the video, 95% of participants said they had a greater understanding of the dangers of mobile phone use while driving. 80% agreed that they would be more likely to limit or completely avoid hands-free calls while driving.
Professor at Nottingham Trent University, David Crundall said: “Now, through our work with Kier, we have demonstrated that it is possible to present the evidence in such a way as to change drivers’ attitudes to hands-free use. Our next challenge is to make sure as many drivers as possible are exposed to this message.”
