FORMER winners of Britain's Safest Fleet Competition have taken initiatives to restrict or ban the use of mobile phones by their company car drivers while on the road. The moves come in the light of a proliferation of evidence and warnings over the dangers of keeping in touch while driving.

DuPont, Dow Chemicals, Johnson & Johnson Medical, Air Products and ICI Polyurethane have responded to a growing weight of research which reveals clear risks of using a car-phone while on the move - hands-free or otherwise. Now, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is due to publish a study into in-car distractions, which will back up its initial call for a ban on in-car mobile phones made earlier this year.

The study is effectively a pull-together of all the available reports on the effects on the driver of various forms of in-car gadgetry - including mobile phones - and RoSPA says the findings clearly reinforce its stance against both hands-free and hand-held car phones. It says distraction resulting from phone use on the road is two-fold, firstly from the actual physical manipulation of the phone, and secondly the concentration involved in talking to the caller.