Driving while Talking...

Just don't answer for safety sake
By Ken Herar
Special Contributor Aug 04 2005
Driving has become part of our daily routine, which includes driving kids to school or going to work. Wireless communication has equally become an important part of our lives to the extent where people are talking on their phones while they drive.Research supports that driving while talking on your cellular is a dangerous combination and could result in a serious motor vehicle accident. I will support that driving and talking on cellular phones disrupts cognitive skills (listening, memory, attention) and puts drivers at risk of getting involved in an accident.Driving alone killed 471 people in 2003 in British Columbia according to the BC Coroners Service. Drivers are not educated on the risk they take when talking on the phone. The use of a cell phone was blamed for a crash that killed five people last year in Maryland. Cell phone distraction causes 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year, according to the journal published by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.If drinking while driving is illegal so should talking on cell phones while operating a vehicle. A 1997 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the collision rates for drivers using handheld cell phones were roughly the same as for drivers who were legally drunk. The only two Canadian jurisdictions to ban cell phones while driving are Newfoundland and Labrador. The Americans have taken a more aggressive approach as of August 24, 2001, where by forty-four states have considered cell-phone legislation compared to just 15 states in 1999. New York, New Jersey and Washington have statewide bans and violators are subject to fines.Research shows that phone use while driving compromise one's attention to foveally presented visual information and manifests in the experimental paradigm known as  change blindness or similarly, a form of inattentional blindness. Thus, even though one might be looking directly at an object, one may not necessarily perceive it or act upon it.In a study by David Strayer and William Johnston from the University of Utah, experiments were conducted which examined the effects of handheld and hands-free phone conversations on a simulated driving task. During the course drivers were presented with different tasks to see how quickly they reacted to various situations while talking on the phone.The principal findings are that when participants were engaged in cell-phone conversations, they missed twice as many simulated traffic signals as when they are not talking on the cell phone and took longer to react to those signals that they did detect.From October 1999 to February 2000, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) conducted a similar test at Boundary Bay Airport on the impact of telephone use on driving performance. They found hands-free telephones significantly degrade driving performance during many of their tests.We see a pattern of consistency indicating that cell phone users struggle in performance while driving. Whether it's a hands-free or hand-held phone, safety issues are raised and it concerns everyone. In the studies examined, we see that cell phones causes considerable impairment while driving. In the Strayer & Johnston experiments reaction time, memory and word-generation areas were clearly effecting drivers. Driving performance abilities and decision-making processes were altered in a local study done by ICBC. There is not enough awareness on this topic and there needs to be more public advertising on the dangers of cell phone usage and driving if we want safer streets in Canada. Cognitive skills (listening, memory, attention) are an essential element when driving. If these attributes are disrupted when on the road, there could be serious consequences. Cellular phones disrupt cognitive behaviors as demonstrated and more needs to be done to discourage its use. More effort needs to be made by all levels of government to bring tougher legislation into law regarding this issue. So, the next time the phone rings while you are driving don't answer it.
Ken Herar@gmail.com
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