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Does banning cell phone use improve driving safety?
Research from the automobile industry and various technology companies have shown for years that holding and talking on a cell phone is no more distracting than other activities drivers participate in while driving. Yet, lawmakers still pushed the point of banning hand-held phone usage while driving as it “played” well in the media.
Now as the Government’s own studies begin to show that hand-held cell phone usage is no greater danger than other activities, what do you think will be the future of driver distraction laws? Will we see these laws removed from the books and the topic be over or will we see broader driver distraction laws (e.g. covering eating while driving)?
NHTSA finds driver distraction is still a problem, even with hands-free devices.
Detailed new research shows that using a cell phone behind the wheel is a key cause of traffic accidents and that hand-free devices provide little safety benefit, federal officials told an international automotive safety gathering Wednesday.
In a closely watched real-world study published Wednesday, a team from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration watched 100 drivers for a year, concluding that the use of electronic devices such as cell phones precipitated many crashes and near-misses.
Other NHTSA researchers said devices like head sets or voice-activated dialing led to longer dialing times than for those using hand-held phones. The delays offset the potential benefit of keeping both hands on the wheel.
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But whether drivers use a hand-held device or not, “phone use degraded both driving performance and vehicle control,” said NHTSA’s Elizabeth Mazzae.
The NHTSA-Virginia tech team used cameras and internal car sensors to track the activities inside a vehicle immediately before a dangerous event, including crashes, near-crashes and “incidents” that required an evasive maneuver to avoid a crash.
The 100-car study showed such events and accidents were often preceded by distraction, and the most frequent distraction was the use of a cell phone or other electronic device.
There were nearly 700 incidents involving wireless devices, the study found.
The next most-frequent source of distraction was a passenger, which preceded a problem situation nearly 400 times. Eating — another common distraction — led to risky behavior just over 100 times.
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“The preponderance of evidence suggests that long conversations while driving impair your ability to react to events,” Greenberg said. “But it would be difficult to make rules about conversations in vehicles.”
[…] The more complete research on driver distraction have looked at the level of driver distraction for a wider range of activities often performed in the care: adjusting the radio, talking/dialing the phone, talking to passengers in the vehicle, writing notes, reading directions, putting on make-up, eating, etc. Almost across the board these studies have shown that the level of distraction among these activities is very similar. […]