Why We Need to Hang Up On Our Distracted Driving Addiction

Texting or talking on a cell phone while driving has been shown to impair driving ability, increase the risk of a crash and threaten highway safety in general. Researchers, safety advocates and legislators are working to raise public awareness of this dangerous habit: The National Safety Council (NSC) paraded out a range of studies and awareness initiatives; states began passing anti-texting while driving laws; President Obama signed an Executive Order prohibiting federal employees from texting while driving; Secretary of Labor Ray LaHood introduced legislation to prohibit truck drivers from texting on the road; and Oprah held No Phone Zone Day.

But the question remains: When are we truly going to kick our distracted driving habit to the curb?

David Strayer, Ph.D., director of the University of Utah's Applied Cognition Lab, has been at the forefront of distracted driving research over the last decade. According to Strayer, most people who use cell phones while driving think they can get away with it. And they can — for a time.

“You don't instantly crash on the road while talking on the cell phone. And you don't instantly crash when you're drunk, either,” Strayer says. “In the long run, if you do it enough, you're going to put yourself at risk.”

That's right — Strayer compares using a cell phone behind the wheel to drunk driving. And he has the research to back it up. The university's Applied Cognition Lab uses a driving simulator — complete with a steering wheel, dashboard displays, gas/brake pedals and screens that show a driving environment — to test driver reaction and behavior in a safe, controlled environment.

“We directly compared drunk drivers and cell phone drivers and found that cell phones were every bit as bad, if not worse, as drunk driving,” Strayer explains.

According to the 2006 study, cell phone users are as impaired as drivers intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08 percent. Cell phone users drove slower, were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes, displayed 24 percent more variation in following distance, were 19 percent slower to resume normal speed after braking and were more likely to crash.

“The National Safety Council suggests that 1 in 4 crashes on the highway now involve cell phone use in one way or another — dialing or talking or texting,” Strayer points out. “There are 40,000 fatalities [annually], so if those numbers are right, we're losing 10,000 people every year from cell phone-related crashes. That's a lot. If we had that same kind of fatality rate with any kind of pharmaceutical, we would pull those drugs off the market in a heartbeat.”

WHY WE DO IT

Part of the reason cell phone use is so prevalent on the road is that we all seem to think we're superior drivers.

“We have a tendency to overrate our own abilities,” Strayer explains. “We think we're better-than-average drivers and we think we're better-than-average multitaskers.”

According to Strayer, most people would agree they have seen a driver's ability become impaired while using a cell phone. But if you ask, “Have you been impaired while driving and having a cell phone conversation?” the answer changes because people are less likely to notice their own dangerous behavior. Strayer says this combination of “delusion and inattention” is making our highways less safe.

Arthur Liggio, executive vice president at Driving Dynamics, a provider of safe driver training for corporate fleet drivers, says the problem is growing.

“As more and more of the adult population have really signed on to using cell phones, it permeates our entire society,” Liggio says. “What was once perhaps a minor issue, because only a small percentage of our population was using cell phones, is now ubiquitous.”

TEXTING TROUBLE

Much of the national attention focusing on distracted driving has revolved around sending text messages, with good reason — texting while driving takes a driver's eyes off the road as the user reads, types and sends messages. Most people seem to acknowledge that texting behind the wheel is dangerous — even if they continue to do so themselves.

But distracted driving doesn't start and end with texting. In addition to texting and cell phone conversations, drivers are distracted by graphic GPS systems, DVD players, in-car Internet connections — and with the promise of even more technological advances to come, the problem may only get worse.