Driving While Distracted More Dangerous Than Supposed

Science News reports on recent research indicating that any kind of multitasking while driving is dangerous. Not just the obvious distraction of juggling a cell phone, but even talking to a passenger or listening to a book on tape. The researchers used a driving simulator inside an MRI machine to measure brain activations. "Attending to what someone says galvanizes language-related brain areas while simultaneously reducing activity in spatial regions that coordinate driving behavior. This finding suggests that people who combine relatively automatic tasks, such as speech comprehension and car driving, exceed a biological limit on the amount of systematic brain activity they can accommodate at one time, the researchers propose. As a result, the less-ingrained skill — in this case, driving, which is learned long after a person grasps a native language — takes a neural hit."

Comments

Not completely straight-forward

[TheRealMindChild]

While this article seems to state that doing anything passive task while driving impairs the drivers ability to drive at full capacity, I don't think it is as cut and dry as it is being made out to be. I know that I start to lose focus on the road when I am doing NOTHING ELSE but driving. The monotony just turns your brain off to the whole situation... which is why if for whatever reason I can't listen to the radio, I limit my driving to any place I can get to in 10 or so minutes.

Highway hypnosis is even more dangerous

[ShinmaWa]

This research might be true for driving in heavily urban areas, where safe driving requires the processing of many, many variables such as cars all around, lane changes, keeping your blind spots clear, reading road signs, and general navigation so that you end up where you are trying to go.

However, the OPPOSITE is true for driving long distances on relatively empty freeways in rural areas. Take, for example, the 600 mile stretch from El Paso, TX to San Antonio, TX which consists of an abundance of two things: diddly and squat. If drivers on this stretch has no other stimulus, they are in danger of entering the highly dangerous state of hypnotic disassociation (sometimes calls highway hypnosis or white line fever), where the conscious brain practically shuts down and you go into auto-pilot -- completely unable to react to anything quickly. If something does happen suddenly, the driver "snaps out" and is disoriented for a second. Usually by that point, its already far too late.

Keeping your mind alert through talking to a passenger or listening to heavy metal on the radio actually helps prevent this condition.

Re:I'm all for a certain amount of regulation...

[Attila Dimedici]

I'm totally against (hands full) cellphone calls while driving. I really don't care if somebody wrecks his or her car against a tree while calling and breaks all the bones in their body, but there are other people on the road aswell. When on the road there is only one thing that is important and that is safety. All of the studies that I have seen about cell phone usage and driving have shown that drivers with "hands free" cell phones are no less distracted (read, "just as likely to hit obstacles and traffice cones) than those using hand held cell phones. So, if you want to be consistent, you should be against all cell phone usage while driving.