Objectives: to measure the prevalence of hand-held mobile phone use among drivers in Udine, Italy. Such behaviour is prohibited by law.
Design: direct roadside observation of car drivers.
Setting and participants: groups of nursing students on the roadside observed car drivers either waiting at red traffic lights or driving in selected major urban streets of the city of Udine and of two smaller neighboring towns, in one-hour time slots in different days in November and December 2018, for a total of 24 hours of observation.
Main outcome measures: prevalence of use of handheld mobile phone either for calling or for activities implying visuo-manual interaction (texting or social media browsing), both among drivers waiting at red traffic lights and among those driving along the streets.
Results: overall, 8,240 observations of vehicles were carried out. The prevalence of mobile phone use was 9.9% among drivers waiting at red traffic lights and 6.5% among those moving along the streets in Udine; the prevalence was higher in the smaller neighboring towns. Among 6,116 drivers, the type of use has also been recorded: prevalence of texting was 7.2% at traffic lights and 5.0% in moving vehicles; prevalence of phone calls was 3.3% and 3.6%, respectively. Texting represented 68.4% of mobile phone use among drivers waiting at traffic lights and 57.8% among moving drivers. Behaviors of female and male drivers were similar.
Conclusion: the use of mobile phones among drivers is very common in Udine, particularly for activities involving both the hands and the eyes. Since the increased risk of road accidents caused by this type of distraction from driving activities is well known, interventions discouraging the use of mobile phones among drivers are needed.
Keywords: mobile phone; prevalence; direct observation; driving; Italy..