Cellphone Drivers Drive Like Drunks

TDavid writes "A University of Utah study claims that drivers who use a cell phone will be 'more impaired than drunken drivers with blood alcohol levels exceeding 0.08.' The study also says that use will turn a driver who is age 20 into age 70. Hands-free systems apparently don't help much either as they still require a driver to 'actively be part of a conversation.' What about in vehicle systems like OnStar?"

Comments

Re:Interesting...

[rjpcal]

I shall have to see if I can acquire these reports. However, I would feel better about the conclusions if they came from more than one source: D. L. Strayer and W. A. Johnston appear to have done the bulk of the work [in both reports] collaboratively. A second report from a wholly different group would help validate Strayer & Johnston's work.

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2. McCarley, JS; Vais, MJ; Pringle, H; et al. Conversation disrupts change detection in complex traffic scenes HUMAN FACTORS, 46 (3): 424-436 FAL 2004
3. Rakauskas, ME; Gugerty, LJ; Ward, NJ Effects of naturalistic cell phone conversations on driving performance JOURNAL OF SAFETY RESEARCH, 35 (4): 453-464 2004
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