Bee-dubya, I'm afraid I have to disagree with your last statement. Cell phone (or mobile in the UK) users can cause accidents when not in a car. I've had a couple of near misses with various pedestrians who have stepped off a kerb in front of me, with their phones glued to one ear, iPod wedged in the other and eyes anywhere but where they're going - all after 10.00pm and all of them under the age of 30.

The volume of crashes after 9.00pm won't jump because there simply isn't the amount of traffic on the roads then. The crucial part of that study is 'weekday evenings'. I don't know about other places, but around here (London, central and east), the amount of traffic on the road drops drastically between 8.00pm and 11.00pm, the very time these studies are targetting. A road that is nose to tail at 6.00pm can be like a ghost town by 9.00 unless there is a specific event happening there. Junctions that are impossible to get through in less than 3 light changes at 7.00pm are clear by 9.00. Statistics will only work if they are taken in context. By all means show that there are fewer accidents between certain times, but you also need to show if the amount of traffic on the road is consistent across 24 hours or if it fluctuates, like the accident rates.

I'm sorry, but when you get recordings played in court of a drivers' mobile phone conversation where he actually says 'oh shit, I've just hit something', there is only one place the blame can be laid - at the feet of the inattentive driver using his phone whilst driving (at a high speed on a motorway at that!)