08/20/2009 - 8:01am

Texting and Driving Don’t Mix

We’ve written about how dangerous it is to talk on a cell phone while driving. Driving demands a great deal of cognitive investment from every single driver, no matter how old or young they are, no matter how experienced they are. Driving is a very complicated task and any activity that takes our attention away from the task on hand, reduces our driving ability and makes driving more dangerous.

Some states ban cell phone use totally; others are considering allowing hands-free cell phone use. But now, the New York Times published an article about a study of drivers’ texting on their cell phones while they drive. The results are not surprising in that they found texting while driving dangerous. What was surprising is just how dangerous it is.

The study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, involved long-haul truck drivers. A camera was fitted into the cabs and their driving habits were observed over 18 months. The results showed that the drivers’ risk of collision was 23 times greater when texting than when not texting.

Drivers spent nearly five seconds looking at their cell phones before a crash. Five seconds on a highway is enough time to cover more than the length of a football field. That is a long way to go while not looking at the road. Even though the study was done with truck drivers, the findings could be applied to all drivers. Truckers do not seem to text any more or any less than typical car drivers, but this study didn’t compare texting use patterns.

According to Tom Dingus, the director of the Virginia Tech Institute, people should not text and drive. “It should be illegal,” he said.

Thirty-six states do not ban texting while driving. 14 States do ban texting while driving- they include Alaska, California, Louisiana and New Jersey. So far New York legislators are asking for more data.
In another study, at the University of Utah, students used a driving simulator to text and drive. This study showed an eight times greater crash risk when texting than when not texting. The different results from the two studies might be because trucks are larger and harder to maneuver and stop and the Utah study used students who might be better at multitasking than the truckers in the Virginia Tech study. But 8 times is still a big crash risk.

To try the simulator game of texting while driving, click on the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-drivin...

A lot of drivers realize that texting while driving is dangerous, but they still do it. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety plans to publish a poll that shows 87% of people consider drivers texting or e-mailing to represent a “very serious” safety threat.” 95% of these drivers said that texting was an unacceptable driving behavior. However, 21% said they had recently texted or emailed while driving. About half of drivers 16-24 said they texted while driving, while 22% of drivers 35-44 did.

We know it’s dangerous, we now know how dangerous it is. So please, if you drive, don’t drink; if you drive, don’t talk on your cell phone; if you drive, don’t text!!!