APRIL IS DISTRACTED DRIVING AWARENESS MONTH
Why is talking on a cell phone distracting, but talking to in-car passengers or listening to music while driving isn’t?
Odd, isn’t it? It is a statistical fact that drivers talking on cell phones make more driving errors than drivers talking to passengers. Among the most common cell phone errors: drivers drifting out of their lanes and missing exits. According to research by the National Safety Council, passengers tend to act as unofficial co-pilots, pointing out lapses –“Hey, look out!” or “Isn’t this our exit?” – in ways that someone on the other end of a cell phone conversation could never do. Passengers naturally interrupt the conversation (that is to say, they stop talking) when there is a traffic incident, while the person a driver is talking to by phone just keeps on talking, obviously unaware of any demanding traffic situation.
When a driver tries to give his full attention to what’s happening on the road in front of him and momentarily ignores what’s being said on the phone, that can prompt the other person to ratchet up the dialogue: “Hello? Hello?” The driver then responds by trying to talk through a traffic situation that requires his full attention. Accidents sometimes result.
Studies have shown that listening to music does not reduce reaction times, while the same drivers do have slower response times while talking on cell phones. In the words of the NSC study, “voice communication influenced the allocation of visual attention.” And you can bet it didn’t influence it in a good way. When you’re hurtling along at hundreds of feet per second, visual attention is not something you want to skimp on. You never know when your full attention will be required.
The study, however, does not absolve music of any and all distraction. Loud music can prevent drivers from hearing emergency sirens, and “cognitive processing” can suffer as a result, says the NSC study.
By the way, hands-free phones are no better than hand-held. The distraction is mainly in the brain, not the hands. The bottom line: any task that distracts a driver should be avoided.