Money is being wasted targeting drivers who use cell phones when the real killers remain drunk-driving, speeding and badly fastened helmets, safety campaigner Joseph Froncioni warned yesterday.The surgeon says the quickest way to curb Bermuda’s frightening road death rate is for greater policing to crack down on more life-risking traffic offending.Dr Froncioni accepts cell phone use while driving is a problem on the Island, but says his extensive research shows bad habits such as drunk-driving are far more likely to lead to kill people.And he says studies in countries where hand-held cell phones have been banned show roads remain just as dangerous if people continue to use hands-free devices.Dr Froncioni, an orthopaedic surgeon who has treated many road crash victims, is a former chairman of the Road Safety Council and spent years compiling and analysing data on road deaths.His concerns on the new ban on hand-held cell phones while driving, introduced by Government shortly before Christmas, are spelled out in a commentary in today’s Royal Gazette (see page 4).The Ministry of Transport says any motorist wishing to text or use a cell phone should pull over to a safe place, but hands-free devices are still legal.Explaining his reservations in an interview yesterday, Dr Froncioni said: “There’s no difference in the distraction between a driver using a hands-free device and a driver using a hand-held cell phone.“If you ban cell phone use, you are just hiding the problem. Using a hands-free device, the driver will continue to have their brainpower focused on their conversation instead of the road. You just cannot see their phone any more.“Government’s funds are limited at the moment. You are wasting your money on this one, especially in a country where we can’t enforce the very, very basic rules of the road like drunk-driving and speeding.“I’m not for using cell phones while driving but if you have a limited budget it’s not cost-effective to simply ban hand-held cell phones but not hands-free.”Nine people were killed on Bermuda’s roads last year, the lowest figure since 2004.Road safety group CADA has claimed this is a result of more sensible driving, but Dr Froncioni argues he can’t see anything but worsening road behaviour.The general trend, he says, is that the death statistic has consistently been too high since 1996, when road policing was dramatically decreased under Police Commissioner Colin Coxall.Since then the average speed on the road has jumped from around 45 kilometres per hour to the high 50s and low 60s.“When the cat’s away, the mice will play,” said Dr Froncioni. “People are driving faster and faster and there’s little police presence to stop them.”As well as speeding, campaigners have repeatedly cited drunk-driving as a reason for Bermuda’s high road death rate, while Dr Froncioni’s research has shown many head injuries have been made much more severe by unfastened helmets.While more policing would be a short-term help, he said, the long-term key is better driving education.He said: “In the long-term, included in our high school curriculum could be a driver education programme as they have in Canada and the US.“So when our kids get on the road at 16 they have taken a full course, on the road with an instructor, not just Project Ride which is scratching the surface.”