The state of California has enacted legislation that will ban the use of handheld mobile phones while driving—a move that follows the lead of the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington, as well as Washington, D.C. Mobile phones have been implicated in 2.8 percent of crashes, a number believed to be four times too low according to statistics from Canada and Australia. About 80 percent of crashes, according to a study for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, involved some form of distraction within three seconds of the crash, and the most frequent distraction was a mobile phone.

Driving is an intense multitasking activity, and adding the further distraction of a cell phone conversation only serves to increase the potential for danger. Researchers at the University of Utah found that "inattentional blindness" occurs when drivers are talking on a phone, hands-free or not. Drivers become so distracted that they fail to see objects on the road ("Driving Under the Influence," Economist.com, June 27, 2008).