When you text and drive...Follow

They should have shown this in theaters instead of "The Final Destination".

Well, except not really. A 2007 study found that your average distracted driver (eating a burger, fiddling with the radio) had their eyes off the road 10% of the time. A texting driver has their eyes off the road 40% of the time or more.

You can't legitimately compare texting to changing the radio while driving.

Some of the comments think that hostile drivers are more of a threat. But I think hostile drivers are just hostile because of people that text/talk on the phone while driving...

I'm a fairly hostile driver. My middle finger gets a work out usually twice a week. I blame the tourists, mostly. Winter months aren't too bad, but as soon as summer hits, it's like every idiot suddenly starts driving.

Like today, after work. I'm driving home, and I come up to a corner that I need to turn onto. But there are two people, one stopped at the stop sign of the road I need to turn onto, and one person that appears to have turned, but is stopped right at the corner talking to the person who was stopped at the stop sign.

So I flip off the driver, honk my horn, and pull up over the curb to drive around him. He just sits there in his truck and continues talking. Then about 5 seconds later, another driver comes up behind him in the same way... and sits there (nicer than I was). By the time I was out of view of the driver, he was still sitting at the corner talking.

I know I would be a much less hostile driver if people would just stop pulling out in front of me, trying to merge into my lane nearly side swiping me (many with phones in their hands), or parking in the middle of the street to gawk at the lakes and forests because they have never seen trees or water in their whole life.

I remember hearing of a case where a man hit a child while he was distracted with a beverage. The beverage happened to be a beer, though he had a low BAC.

ftfy

I drive normally with one hand unless it's raining or something else is causing me to be at a disadvantage. So when somebody calls me on my phone I have no problem answering it. I find changing the volume for the speakers to be more distracting than talking on the phone. Texting is rediculous though, I'd be more likely to drink and drive than I would to text while driving.. and I'm not anywhere near likely to do that.

tldr; -> what joph said



Yeah um, I'm just gonna ahead and say that you have too much anger while driving. :p Flipping him off if he didn't move after you honked your horn to let him know you're there is ok.. but starting off that way is... yeah.

I've incurred the most potential danger via driving-while-drowsy, myself.

I dare say I might even be less distracted than normal when using a phone.

Unless there's been a new study released, that's not quite correct. Lots of "new" articles and papers have been written about this, but most of them are still using older, and honestly flawed, testing methods. Testing distraction levels in a simulator (or some other reaction test) is not going to provide an accurate result. Anything which is "new" to the person taking the test will be a distraction. Adding several of them at once multiplies the effect.

In a 2005 NHTSA test, the biggest distraction for the test subjects was actually wearing a headset. They were constantly fiddling with the supposedly "hands free" device. And in a simulator with which they are not familiar.


I'll make the same statement I made the last time this subject came up. Have people drive their cars on a test course. Not a simulator. Not a test car they've never driven before. Their own cars. Have 50 people who own their own headsets (or have bluetooth in their cars) run the test at various speeds or difficulties. Have 50 other people who use their phones manually do the same. Record the difference. If you want, have a control group which does neither of these things. Do this test many times with different groups of people.

This way you're actually testing how a largish set of people will actually be able to react to real situations they'll encounter while driving (but with cones and foam rubber obstacles instead of real ones). Do this, and I guarantee you that you'll find a dramatic difference between those who drive hands free and those who don't. Once you get used to a handsfree device, it's no more distracting than talking to someone next to you. No amount of being used to talking will eliminate the fact that you take your eyes off the road to dial, and have one hand tied up talking when using a set manually.


Oh. And that's one of the more recent ones. Most of the older "hands free" tests did not use bluetooth headsets or systems, but used the old wired dohickies. So people were often holding the microphone, or fiddling with the wires. Newer sets, once you get used to them, are pretty distraction free.

I think it's funny when people argue against distraction just because they've never been a victim of it. Studies and tests mean very little with something like this.

I often whip out the DS at long stoplights. Wouldn't bother while actively driving though: it's not like you can concentrate on the game while you're driving anyway!

To speak to the distraction argument again? it's not the fiddly wires that are a distraction but the fact that you're talking on the phone.

That's what I was thinking, doesn't matter, phone or next to you, still a distraction. However the biggest distraction I have ever had in the car.... a child!