From todays Harold.
Interesting statistics, but backs up suspicions...
Monday July 3, 2006
By Maggie Fox
WASHINGTON - People who talk on cellphones while driving, even using "hands-free" devices, are as impaired as drunk drivers, say American researchers.
And just like many people who have been drinking, the cellphone users did not believe themselves to be affected.
"If legislators really want to address driver distraction, then they should consider outlawing cellphone use while driving," said Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah who worked on the study.
The researchers used a driving simulation device for their study, published in the northern summer 2006 issue of Human Factors, the Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
They studied 40 volunteers who used a driving simulator four times - while not distracted, using a handheld mobile phone, using a hands-free cellphone and while intoxicated to a 0.08 per cent blood-alcohol level - the average legal level of impairment in the United States - after drinking vodka and orange juice.
Three study participants rear-ended the simulated car in front of them.
All were talking on cellphones and none was drunk, said the researchers.
Motorists who talked on either handheld or hands-free mobile phones drove slightly more slowly, were 9 per cent slower to hit the brakes, and varied their speed more than drivers who were not distracted.
Drivers with an 0.08 per cent blood-alcohol level drove a bit more slowly than both the drivers who were not distracted and telephone users, yet more aggressively.
"Driving while talking on a cellphone is as bad as or maybe worse than driving drunk," said Professor Drews, who added that alcohol was involved in 40 per cent of the 42,000 annual US traffic fatalities.
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.......... surely it's SPEED that kills? all the road safety adverts tell me so?
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