Last updated April 12, 2019
While the United States considers the implementation of a blanket ban on the use of all new and old cell phones, with or without the use of hands free devices, while operating a motor vehicle, one country that does not seem likely to enact any such bans at all anytime soon is Sweden. A new study undertaken in this Scandinavian country has concluded that there is absolutely no reason to ban the use of cell phones for the purposes of either talking or texting while driving.
A report from the Swedish National Road and Transport Institute, which is based in Linkoping in southern Sweden, has found that educating motorists on how to use the devices more safely is much more preferable to any kind of blanket ban.
“It is our opinion that a combination of different countermeasures, which educate and inform the driver, while at the same time support him or her in a safe usage of communication devices, is preferable to a law against communication device usage while driving,” the report says.
“We’ve seen that that it doesn’t help to have such a law while driving,” claims Katja Kircher from the Institute. Kircher says that the Institute came to this conclusion for two primary reasons; that people simply would not obey the law anyway, and that studies have already proved to its satisfaction that banning the devices has no effect on the risk of crashes anyway. Sweden is one of just a few countries in Europe that still allows the use of cell phones while driving without hands free devices.