Study: 1 In 3 Americans Text And Drive

[AtheistCrusader]

50. I'm aware of the studies.

Particularly the Utah University inattention blindness study, that eliminated the initiation and termination phases of the call, and focused solely on the mental effect of the conversation with a hands free phone.

A glaring weakness of the study, they did not compare or control for the same effect in a conversation with a side seat or rear seat passenger, compared to the phone. An odd omission.

Single and dual task simulations increased the time to activation of the brake from 2-3 tenths of a second, but it also had the effect of causing the participants to increase following distance 2.5-3.5 meters. (Increased following distance being a good thing, the way most people drive these days REGARDLESS)

Increase of following distance coupled with that delay suggests to me that humans are quite capable of adapting to these circumstances, inherently. That was an encouraging result. If the time to activate the brake had increased AND the following distance remained static, or worse, got smaller due to inattention, that would be incredibly concerning.

Since the heavy traffic volume version of the experiment produced 3 wrecks while talking on the phone, I would immediately survey the participants for actual driving record performance, to see if there is perhaps something wrong with the experiment. Especially since almost all of the participants admitted to using phones while driving.