 Watch out, chronic mobile users! If you are in Singapore for your next vacation and are tempted to use your mobile while driving, you could face a six-month jail term or a (S)$1,000 fine, or both, plus a driving ban. A second offence would just double both. In the US, the New Jersey town of Marlboro, with a population of 36,000, recently introduced a local ordinance banning the use of hand-held cellular phones while driving, overruling objections by telecommunications giant AT&T.
Four U.S. towns have passed similar bans. Brooklyn, Ohio, was the first in March 1999. Three similar laws in Pennsylvania followed, triggered by the November 1999 death of two-year-old Morgan Lee Pena, killed in Hilltown when a driver using a cell phone ran a stop sign and hit the car driven by her mother. Twenty-seven state legislatures in America considered cell phone bills in 1999, but none has been passed. Legislation is pending in six American states.
 However, cell phones are just one distraction and more research is needed on how well drivers can handle them, considering that humans have a very strong tendency to do several tasks at once. Also it is just not possible to concentrate one hundred per cent on driving while at the wheel. A learner might, but as the process of driving becomes automated, it does not take up full attention. Drivers converse with co-passengers, listen to radio, eat, smoke and at times even drink while driving. Proponents of cell phones argue that something as simple as changing a cassette tape in your car's stereo can be just as distracting.
Legislating against driver distractions is a tricky business, but the widespread use of cell phones has raised public fear about this technology and already a number of countries have passed laws restricting the use of phones in cars. Seventeen countries have enacted restrictions on cell phones while driving. Israel and Singapore, the strictest, have outright bans. According to an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, drivers using cell phones are four times as likely to have an accident, the same chances as while legally intoxicated. A recent report from England indicates that it doesn't matter whether it is hand-held or hands-free phones, the result is the same: greater risk.
On the positive side, cell phones are credited with saving many lives. In America, more than half a million emergency calls are made each month on them. According to AT&T, more than 36 million such emergency calls are made every year. But new research suggests the risks may outweigh the benefits. A US study found that people who talk on the phone more than average run an almost five-times-greater risk of a traffic accident. Hence, the more you use your mobile in the car, the greater the risk. While using one, attention obviously wanders and accidents can result. How you drive is up to you, but it could affect your life as well as the lives of others on the road.
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Australia
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Victoria and New South Wales have banned the use of mobiles while driving.
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Austria
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Hand held phone use banned
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Belgium
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Legislation in process.
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Brazil
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Has legislation on phone use while driving
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Britain
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Has legislation on phone use while driving
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Chile
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Has legislation on phone use while driving
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Finland
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Survey completed recently. Old legislation against wireless devices may cover cell phones
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India
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Talking on phone while driving is an offence.
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Israel
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Has legislation against handheld phone use while driving
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Italy
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Has legislation on phone use while driving
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Japan
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Legislation came into effect on November 1, 1999
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Netherlands
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Legislators currently working on proposal
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Norway
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Handheld phones banned after March 15. 2000.
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Portugal
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Has legislation against hand-held car phone use
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Singapore
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Outright ban on phones while driving
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Spain
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Has legislation on phone use while driving
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Switzerland
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Has legislation against handheld wireless phones
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