The Hindu : International : Hands-free phones too pose danger to drivers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 01, 2006

International

International

Hands-free phones too pose danger to drivers

James Randerson

London: Using a hands-free kit while at the wheel is as dangerous as drinking and driving, according to a study of volunteers in a driving simulator.

The researchers conclude that all mobile phone use while driving should be banned.

``Just like you put yourself and other people at risk when you drive drunk, you put yourself and others at risk when you use a cell phone and drive. The level of impairment is very similar,'' said the report's lead author, David Strayer, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah in the United States.

The researchers studied the driving skills of 40 volunteers who followed a virtual car in a driving simulator, which was programmed to brake at random.

Each of the volunteers performed the task four times: without distractions, while using a handheld phone, while speaking on a hands-free kit and after downing enough vodka to put them just over the drink-driving limit.

As in previous studies, the researchers found that talking into the phone, whether hands-free or hand-held, impaired their driving.

Drivers were 9 per cent slower hitting the brakes, 24 per cent more variable in the distance they kept behind the lead car and 19 per cent slower resuming their normal speed. Their impairment was similar to that when they drove drunk.

Another study, carried out by researchers at the University of Michigan Transport Research Institute, which involved observing 36 drivers covering more than 1,28,000 km on the road, found that speaking to passengers could be as distracting as talking on a mobile.

Drivers chatting to the person next to them strayed further from the centre of their lane, for example.

Although less research has been done on the effects of distracting passengers, the result goes against conventional wisdom.

Researchers had assumed that passengers were more likely to keep quiet at difficult driving moments.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International