Driving While Cell-Phone Impaired
p2p news / p2pnet: Talking on a cell phone when you’re driving, even with hands-free devices, is as bad as driving when you’re drunk.
So says the University of Utah in a study quoted by the Detroit Free Press.
“At any given moment during the day, 10% of drivers on U.S. roads are gabbing away on their wireless devices, according to a 2005 estimate by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” says the story. And Utah is failing to address the cell phone issue by allowing the use of hands-free cell phones and not handheld,” states Frank Drews, coauthor of the study.
An assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah, “We shouldn’t take the mind-set that if you use a headset you would be safer,” the story has him saying.
The study was funded by a $25,000 Federal Aviation Administration grant to examine impaired attention in pilots, says The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Cell phone drivers had slower reaction times and more accidents, and drove inconsistently, sometimes approaching other cars and then falling back, according to Drews and study co-author David Strayer.
But it’s unfair to single out phones, states John Walls, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA ) in the story.
“I think there are just a multitude of distractions that are out there,” Walls said. “And by focusing on just one, you’re creating a false sense of security among people.”
Digg this story
Also See:
Detroit Free Press – Study: Hands-free phone not safer on road, June 30, 2006
The Philadelphia Inquirer – Using cellphone as dangerous as driving drunk?, June 30, 2006
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June 30th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Talking on the phone while driving has been illegal in Finland for some time already.
June 30th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
should be illegal here too and oldie drivers should be banned
June 30th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
It is also illegal in the UK, but it doesn’t seem to stop people
July 1st, 2006 at 1:26 am
This really needs to be ranked with drunk driving. Prehaps I am biased on this one. I’ve been the victim of a rearend collision while stopped at a red light waiting for it to change green. Apparently the driver did not see me or the other 5 cars waiting. There was nothing in the way and plenty of oppurtunity to stop before finding my bumper. Nor was this a highway, interstate, or highspeed road. It was the local main drag, a place of 35 mph speed limit. Thank heavens this wasn’t a highspeed roadway.
It’s a trip at times to try and pass someone talking on the phone. You don’t know whether to slow down, because they will slow down also, whether to speed up as they will do that too, or whether you have enough room on a 4 lane to get around them while they are all over the road.
Personally, I hate the things and won’t have one. I won’t be worried about whether my hands are free for driving or if my skills are impaired from what seems to be long term distraction. I really wished others felt that way too.
July 1st, 2006 at 8:01 am
Perhaps they also could do a study about talking to other people in the car as a distraction. How about listing to a conversation on the radio?
Any distraction while driving will give these results not just cell phone use.
Rule #1 If you are paying more attention to the distraction than driving,
STOP DOING IT!!!
I myself would drop my phone and piss off the person on the other end if I needed to pay more attention to my driving.
P.S. My Wife doesn’t like to talk to me on the phone while I am driving as I don’t pay enough attention to what she is saying.