Don't talk and drive?

[Phokaioglaukos]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/...0417.story

baltimoresun.com
Driving while using a cell phone found to quadruple crash risk
By Michael Dresser

December 5, 2008





Using a cell phone while driving quadruples the chances of becoming involved in a crash - whether or not the motorist is using a hands-free device - according to a report released yesterday by a leading traffic safety advocacy group.

Yet two-thirds of Americans believe it is safer to talk on the phone while driving if one's hands are free, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reported.

The AAA Foundation report is a compilation of studies that looked - among other things - at billing records of drivers who had been involved in crashes to see whether they had been talking on cell phones just before the events.

In two such studies, no statistically significant difference in risk was found between the use of hand-held cell phones and the hands-free models.

The report also cited another study showing that cell phone use delays driver reactions to critical road events by an average of 0.23 seconds - with little difference between conventional cell phones and hands-free devices.

"The best available evidence suggests that it is no less hazardous for a driver to use a hands-free phone than to use a hand-held phone," the report concludes.

According to the report, four in five Americans now own cell phones and more than half of drivers admit in surveys to using them while driving.

Several states - including California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington - have adopted laws banning the use of hand-held phones while driving.

The Maryland General Assembly has debated such bills in past years but has rejected them, except in the case of novice drivers.

Ragina Averella, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, noted that her organization has long supported wide-ranging laws prohibiting distracted driving rather than narrowly focused measures addressing hand-held cell phones.

[George3]

I notice folks drive slower on the highways when on the cell phone.  And, generally they don't even know you're behind them.

[Brian Minkin]

I do not agree with the study from personal experience.  I talk on a hands free device when driving and do not find it any more distracting than talking to a passenger.  Of course if you did a study of people in crashes with or without passengers in the car you might get the same result. I also place outgoing calls by voice command so I never have to touch the phone while driving.

I do find other drivers on a hand held phone obviously distracted and not as situationally aware.  Worse yet is those who text while they drive.

[Phokaioglaukos]

Brian Minkin wrote:

Worse yet is those who text while they drive.

Remind me why I started this thread....

[George3]

Phokaioglaukos wrote:

Brian Minkin wrote:

Worse yet is those who text while they drive.

Remind me why I started this thread....

[AMoore]

Brian Minkin wrote:

I do not agree with the study from personal experience. I talk on a hands free device when driving and do not find it any more distracting than talking to a passenger. Of course if you did a study of people in crashes with or without passengers in the car you might get the same result. I also place outgoing calls by voice command so I never have to touch the phone while driving.

I do find other drivers on a hand held phone obviously distracted and not as situationally aware. Worse yet is those who text while they drive.

I read a study a couple years ago which provided that hands free devices were more dangerous than passenger communications since a passenger can recognize road dangers and someone on the other end of the phone cannot. That being said, I don't care what the study says, I refuse to believe that handheld phones are not more dangerous than hands free. Simply having two hands improves your ability to avoid an accident. I have an onstar phone, which doesn't get dialed. You merely say the the name of the person you want to call, or say the number. That has to be safer than dialing on a hand held device.

Also, people who text message while driving should be incarcerated, especially young drivers!

[Brian Minkin]

I saw an accident on West Chester Pike last week. I am at a dead stop in the right lane and a young female driver in an Infinity comes barreling in in the left lane and it is obvious she is not going to stop before contact with the car in front of her.  She hits the car and her air bag deploys.  Bag deflates and she continues to finish her text message and send it before stepping out of the car. I think texting is like crack cocaine for some people.  Total addicts. 

[Dan Yonker]

Brian, I've only smoked crack cocaine twice and I didn't find it that addicting:?

Folks....I own a consulting business that has required me to drive between 35-50K miles a year for the last 12+ years.  I have seen it all.  There is no doubt that people go into "autoplot" while talking.  If I had a dollar for every person I came up upon in the left lane who was on the phone, or for every person who did somethiong erratic as a result of talking on the phone, I could afford another track day AND one of George's T-Shirts.

BTW, I am an offender too.  While hands free is definitely better, it is not entirely safe.  For me, it is not necessarily a lack of skill required to "dial and drive", it is simply the fact that you become disengaged when talking on the phone.  Suddenly I find myself at the end of the PA turnpike and I wonder where the time went.  

I, like many of you, like to think that I am a slightly more talented and observant driver than your average Joe (including Joe the Plumber), which allows me to get away with a few things that others may not.  But really, it is defensive driving and a little skill that keeps me out of trouble.  For those of you who drive motorcycles, you understand this all too well....defensive driving is the key.  The real killer, I find, is when you see 10 people stacked up in the left lane, 1/2 car length apart, going 70-80 mph.  The other day I witnessed this in the rain...unbelievable.  I can't believe there are not more mulyi-car pile-ups.  Then there is someone like me, who leaves a 2-3 second buffer, and some smack-ass pulls in front of you to take it away.  Oh well....thank God for SIRIUS radio and a cell phone (?).     

 

 

 

 

 

 

[emayer]

Sorry for going off topic here but the post above reminded me of an encounter....

In my training days I did a stint at Cooper Hospital (Camden).  I could write a book about the experiences.  One day I was heading in at about 5am when I came up behind a car at a stop sign.  I found it odd that the couple was taking their time going through the intersection until I saw that they were lighting up crack...

Amazing what we share the roads with.  Not that our group warrants this lesson but the moral is:  assume drivers around you are impaired...

 

BTW-  I agree with the comments regarding cell phone use esp texting.  I'm wondering if comparative control research exists regarding the effects of passengers versus driving alone.  It may help settle the issue in respect to hands-free use.

[Phokaioglaukos]

I have seen reports of studies that purport to show that passengers and use of the radio/CD entertainment absolutely distracts drivers. The suggestion was for new drivers that they drive a number of months with NO passengers of their age, then just one, then two, etc. and that they not turn the radio/CD/iPod on.

As drivers gain experience more of the act of driving can become automatic. Sort of like "when do you know you're ready to race? when you no longer think about the process of turn-in, apex and track-out and just do it automaticially, adjusting for traffic." No question that if one THINKS about driving a bit more it's safer.