Texting and Driving Don’t Mix
A recent major study shows that mixing cell phones and driving is more dangerous than driving while under the influence of alcohol. Accidents caused by cell phones have fueled a push here and abroad to ban cell phones and driving.
Cell phones and driving testing conducted by scientists for insurance firm Direct Line at the United Kingdom-based Transport Research Laboratory involved 20 subjects using a driving simulator to measure reaction times and driving performance.
Researchers tested how driving impairment was affected when drivers were talking on a cell phone and driving. The scientists then tested drivers who had consumed enough alcohol to register above the legal blood-alcohol limit.
Direct Line reported that the results showed drivers' reaction times were, on average, 30 percent slower when using a cell phone and driving than when legally drunk - and nearly 50 percent slower than under normal driving conditions.
The tests also showed drivers talking on cell phones and driving were less able than drunk drivers to perform simple driving maneuvers, such as maintaining a constant speed, and they had greater difficulty keeping a safe distance from vehicles in front of them.
Accidents caused by cell phones could be a result of these slower reaction times. Researchers in both the United States and Britain continue to look into the root reasons for accidents caused by cell phones.
Phone Hazards
Using a cell phone and driving had the greatest impact on driving performance, the report said.
On average, it took those using a cell phone and driving half a second longer to react than normal and a third of a second longer to react compared to those who were drunk.
At 70 mph, this half-second difference is equivalent to traveling an additional 46 feet before reacting to a road hazard, researchers said.
The effects were not as significant when a driver was using a hands-free cell phone and driving, tests showed.
British Ban Pending
“There has been a lot of attention paid to driving while using a mobile phone, and we wanted to quantify the risk by using drunk driving as a benchmark to establish the danger,” Dominic Burch, road safety campaign manager for Direct Line, told Wireless NewsFactor.
Burch said the data support legislation currently under consideration by Parliament to ban cell phones and driving in Britain.
“It's similar to the bill passed in New York State and in other countries and would make this a specific offense under our law,” he said.
Burch said Direct Line commissioned the TRL research following a recent survey done by the company showing that four out of 10 drivers, or about 10 million British motorists, said they have been talking on a cell phone and driving at the same time.
“We were surprised by the results.” Burch said the researchers expected that alcohol consumption would cause greater impairment of driving ability than talking on a cell phone and driving.
“We would like to see the use of mobile phones when driving, both hands-held and hands-free, become as socially unacceptable as drunk driving,” he added.
Burch emphasized that the results are not meant to encourage things like drinking and driving, but to show that cell phones and driving can be a serious distraction.
Chuck Eger, director of the office of driver safety at Motorola, said that while he had not seen the Direct Line study, he questioned its conclusions.
“Based on the work in this area to date that has been conducted by experts in the field in the U.S., it's premature to reach a definitive conclusion on what is safe and what is not safe regarding telecommunications in cars,” he told Wireless NewsFactor.
Eger noted that when driver distractions are ranked in studies, using a cell phone and driving is typically low on the list. “This study has no comparison distractions to offer,” he said.
“Our goal is to educate our customers; they need to use good judgment in deciding when it is appropriate to make a call while driving and when it is not appropriate,” Eger said.
But Are Accidents Caused By Cell Phones?
The U.S. National Safety Council used a driving simulator in a study similar to the British study and found that talking on a cell phone and driving led to “significant” distractions for drivers.
But General Motors recently issued a study saying that only two of the 8.1 million embedded cell phone calls placed to GM's OnStar call center advisor from October 1996 (when the OnStar telematics system was introduced) through May 2000 came from drivers known to be talking on a cell phone and driving at the time of a crash severe enough to deploy vehicle air bags.
There was no evidence that the calls actively contributed to the crashes, GM said, pointing out that an examination of its records showed other contributing factors were at play in both accidents.
In May 2001, the American Automobile Association (AAA) released the results of a study funded by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety showing that drivers involved in serious crashes most often were distracted by something outside their vehicle (29.4 percent), while talking on a cell phone and driving contributed to just 1.5 percent of such incidents, causing even more debate over whether accidents are caused by cell phones.
The AAA study has drawn fire for its methodology, primarily because it relies only on those accidents actually reported by drivers and because the estimates for cell phone use are based on just 42 reported cases.
If you believe you have a legal issue regarding accidents caused by cell phones, contact an attorney today for a free consultation.