Nearly two-thirds of Americans support a national ban on the use of mobile phones while driving, even if the driver is using a hands-free device, according to a poll.

A cell phone ban would increase highway safety “a great deal”, said nearly half of the 2,424 adults interviewed for the survey by pollsters at Quinnipiac University.

Seventy per cent of the people polled said they rarely or never used a mobile phone while driving.

Only 10 per cent said they used a phone “very often” while at the wheel of a vehicle, and another 20 per cent admitted to “sometimes” using their phone while driving, the poll – which was conducted from November 8 to 15 – found.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has called even hands-free cell phone use while driving a “cognitive distraction” and said he may push Congress for a national ban on using a phone, including hands-free devices, while at the wheel.

Some 5,500 people were killed last year by distracted drivers and half a million were maimed or injured, according to the Department of Transportation.

Many of the distracted drivers were using their mobile phones, iPods or Blackberries, Mr LaHood said at a summit on distracted driving earlier this year.

Women were more likely than men to back a national ban on mobile phone use by drivers. Seventy per cent of women backed the idea, compared to 55 per cent of men. Support for a ban on mobile phone use was also divided along age lines, with older Americans more likely than their younger counterparts to back the ban.

Three-quarters of the over-55s said a ban was a good idea compared to just over half of 18- to 34-year-olds.