While it isn’t exactly brand new information that mixing texting and driving is not a good idea, however, a new study that has just been released reveals just how dangerous it really is.
Following the examination of the reaction of truck drivers who cover more than 6,000,000 miles of road, the study concluded that people who send text messages while driving are 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash than drivers who are not distracted. In order to conduct the study, researchers put cameras inside the driver’s vehicles. They studied things such as what the driver’s eyes were looking at as they did numerous things, such as reaching for an object talking on the phone, dialing the phone, and texting. To no one’s surprise, the numbers indicated that the tasks that diverted people’s eyes from the road or highway posed the greatest amount of danger.
In near crashes and crashes, texting while driving took a driver’s focus off of the road or highway for approximately 4.6 seconds, which is enough time for the vehicle to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph.
In contrast, talking on a cell phone, which allows drivers to keep their eyes on the road or highway, only increased the risk by 1.3 times over that of a driver who was not distracted.
The authors of the study also questioned the past research which indicated that talking on a cell phone while driving is as dangerous as drunk driving. While those results may have been found in driving simulations and lab tests, they say, the same was not true in situations in the real world. In addition, they also noted that contrary to popular belief, talking on a cell phone with a hands free wireless headset is not substantially safer than talking on a regular handset. The reason of this is that the factor that was the most significant as far as safety is concerned is to keep the driver’s eyes on the road.
The study also reports that any task which takes a driver’s eyes away from the road or highway should be avoided and further suggests that all cell phone activity should be banned for newly licensed teenagers since they’re more likely to use their cell phones.
