Quote Originally Posted by Holsterman View Post
The relevant research shows that hands-free phone calls are as distracting as hand-held calls.

You are talking about "activities requiring a driver to take his or her eyes off of the forward roadway, such as texting or dialing on a handheld phone". It's not relevant, and is a Straw Man argument.

Let me run through some scenarios with you....the first.

I get in to my car which is always paired to the vehicles Bluetooth. It's set up so calls are prioritised over media. The phones rings, I have some options. One being to press a green button to answer the call which is actually safer than leaning across to put the radio on because it's on the steering wheel or waiting for 3 rings so that it answers automatically, I have my conversation and the call then ends automatically.
Throughout all of this my hands are on the wheel and eyes havent left the road.

Ive also got a 1970s Austin Allegro which unfortunately has none of the latest tech....I could obviously have a parrot fitted but hey.....it's a frigging Allegro. The phone is in my pocket and I'm merrily driving down the road when the phone rings. I firstly pull the phone out of my pocket whilst wiggling my arse out of the seat which will undoubtably mean that my feet lose some connection with the pedals.
Once out of my pocket I avert my gaze to the phone , see who's calling.....oh shit it's the missus better answer it. So I press the green button whilst one handledly holding the phone to my ear obviously leaving one hand on the steering wheel. A round about comes up so I have to trap the phone between my shoulder and my ear whilst negotiation the manoeuvre. Thankfully it's a quick call and the missus just wants to tell me some rubbish and ends the call.

2 scenarios for which you are saying hold the same level of distraction. Tell me how both these scenarios can command the same level of distraction without pointing us to some anecdotal website?