People who talk on cell phones while driving, even using "hands-free" devices, are as impaired as drunken drivers, researchers said Thursday.
"If legislators really want to address driver distraction, then they should consider outlawing cell phone use while driving," said Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah who worked on the study.
The researchers used a driving simulation device for their study, published in the summer 2006 issue of Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
They studied 40 volunteers who used a driving simulator four times--while undistracted, using a handheld cell phone, using a hands-free cell phone and while intoxicated to a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level--the average legal level of impairment in the United States--after drinking vodka and orange juice.
Three study participants rear-ended the simulated car in front of them. All were talking on cell phones and none was drunk, the researchers said.
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Motorists who talked on either handheld or hands-free cell phones drove slightly more slowly, were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes, and varied their speed more than undistracted drivers.
Drivers with a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level drove a bit more slowly than both undistracted drivers and telephone users, yet more aggressively.
"Driving while talking on a cell phone is as bad as or maybe worse than driving drunk," said Drews, who said alcohol was involved in 40 percent of the 42,000 annual U.S. traffic fatalities.
Just like many people who have been drinking, the cell phone users did not believe themselves to be affected, the researchers found.
Last edited by madthumbs on Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:08 am; edited 1 time in total
A study may shed light on why talking on a cellphone appears to make drivers prone to accidents.
The study looked at how having a conversation with someone who is not present competes with those parts of the brain needed to perform visual tasks.
The report, which appears in the current issue of Experimental Psychology, was written by Amit Almor, an associate professor of psychology at the University of South Carolina.
For the study, volunteers were asked to take part in a series of visual tests on a computer while listening to information about, for example, setting up a fish tank or finding north by using the sun or stars. They were then asked questions about what they had heard.
The volunteers did much better on their visual tasks when they were just listening, as opposed to preparing to speak or speaking. When they were listening, if the demands on their brains became too much, they could just tune out what they were hearing.
The study found differences, although smaller ones, based on where the sound was coming from. When the audio came from the same direction that participants were facing to do their visual tasks, they did better on them.
It may be, the study said, that when people talk to someone who is not present, the visual-processing parts of their brain create a mental representation of where the other person might be. This suggests, Dr. Almor said, that using cellphones may be safer if the sound comes from the front.
