Next time you feel the urge to phone home while cruising down the freeway, you might want to fight the impulse. Drivers using cellphones have four times the risk of being involved in car accidents that result in hospital visits, according to a new study in the British Medical Journal. And those hands-free devices? They won't lower your risk of a crash.

"There's accumulating evidence that it's really the conversation itself that's a major distracter," says Anne McCartt, the vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Va., and one of the authors of the study.

From 2002 to 2004, researchers in Australia interviewed 456 cellphone-toting drivers who ended up in one of three major emergency rooms in the Perth metropolitan area after an accident. They also examined phone records around the time of the drivers' crashes. The authors found that variables such as age, sex, and the type of cellphone didn't affect the chance of a collision. It's the talk that's not cheap.

For more information: The website of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety lists current laws regarding cellphone use while driving.

Read the article: McEvoy, S. et al. "Role of Mobile Phones in Motor Vehicle Crashes Resulting in Hospital Attendance: A Case-Crossover Study." British Medical Journal. July 12, 2005. Online First.

Abstract online: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com