Study confirms the obvious: chatting behind the wheel is dangerous
By Evan Blass 
posted Apr 20th 2006 5:59PM
posted Apr 20th 2006 5:59PM
A new study by the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration and the Virgina Tech Transportation Institute using vehicle-embedded sensors and
videocams has confirmed what most of us already knew, which is that talking on your cellphone make you more susceptible
to getting in an accident. Of the 82 crashes and 761 "near misses" experienced by 241 drivers over the course
of the yearlong study, dialing and talking on a cellphone were the second and third most common causes, respectively,
after drowsiness. Moreover, dialing a phone nearly triples your chances of getting into an accident, concluded the
study, which showed that driving distractions in general played a role in almost 80% of the accidents recorded. If
proof like this doesn't shock legislators into addressing this problem, our only hope seems to be voluntary measures
adopted by wireless carriers, such as the clever audible
stoplight alert system we brought you yesterday.
Mythbusters (I love those guys) covered this in "Episode 33: Killer Brace Position and Cellphones vs Drunk Driving"
They determined that driving while talking on the phone was just as dangerous as driving while drunk but made sure to mention that you can PUT DOWN THE PHONE at any time whereas you cannot put down your blood alcohol content.
It may be true that chatting behind the wheel is dangerous but we must also consider that there are instances when you really need to converse with the person on the other line,say an emerency. Maybe when one is driving he should use a hands-free phone so he could still focus on the road ahead.
This study is flawed. Why? Because it didn't make an effort to measuring the risks of talking to a passenger in the car which is probably a more prevalent behavior than talking on a cellphone, and seeming more dangerous. The reason is that you tend to look at the person you're talking to which would take the driver's eye off the road more than it would if he were alone just talking on his or her cellphone.
So if you're thinking that the government should legislate against drivers talking on their cell, then perhaps they should also prohibit talking to the person in the seat next to you. Yeah. Right
Well it's illegal in the UK to use a handheld mobile phone. You must use a hands-free kit if you must use a phone whilst driving.
There are still plenty of people driving with their phones perched under their ears though.