Highway Accident Report by NTSB....Texting

Ban the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed to support the driving task) for all drivers; (2) use the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration model of high visibility enforcement to support these bans; and (3) implement targeted communication campaigns to inform motorists of the new law and enforcement, and to warn them of the dangers associated with the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices while driving.

Hum. Wasn't thinking about GPS. I guess it can be distracting; on the order of looking at your speedometer?

The policy at my work was changed: no use of cell phones when driving, period.

My motto: "It can wait."

...but what happened to getting directions before you leave? Then if you get lost, pull off the road and stop and check directions.

My wife drives the car from the passenger seat. Turn here, stop there, you should have taken that left turn at Albequerque, etc. Then I got a GPS. I tossed it out after the first week. Turn here, stop there, you should have taken that left turn at Albequerque, etc. It's a wonder we haven't all been rear ended.

Passengers in cars are much more distracting than talking on cell phones. If you're talking on a cell phone, at least your eyes are on the road and not the passenger. People feel the need to make eye contact when they're talking to an actual person, so there is constant glancing at the "listener", then there is the need to look at the person you are speaking to to get that all important "facial and body language" feedback. Then when the passenger responds, there is that obligation to glance over continuously to give them "feedback". A cell phone has no feelings and doesn't need eye contact.

drivers showing a more pronounced tendency to drift during cell phone conversations compared to the passenger conversation condition

drivers in the cell phone condition were four times more likely to fail task completion than drivers in the passenger condition

This is actually the opposite of true. For example
http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCog...JEP_A_2008.pdf





The explanation that I've heard (and which I think sounds about right) is that passengers in the vehicle with you can see how you're doing in your surroundings and cease conversation when necessary (when executing turns, when traffic patterns shift, etc.) whereas somebody on a cell phone cannot.

Passengers drive motorists to distraction says AA Insurance survey
The most frequent cause of driver distraction is other people in the car, according to new survey from AA Insurance.

Chatting to passengers is the greatest source of driver distraction - worse than using new technologies such as iPods, DVDs and car navigation systems.

A parliamentary investigation into driving distractions has warned that hundreds of drivers may be at risk of crashing because of the growth in video, audio and other electronic devices, which are increasingly being used while driving. But the investigation also found that the greatest source of driver distraction was not technology related, it was interacting with other passengers, placing renewed pressure on the Bracks Government to restrict P-plate drivers from carrying multiple passengers.

"While there has been much media focus on driving while using a mobile phone, and concern about new technology in vehicles, a variety of everyday activities are likely to be the major contributors to distraction-related crashes," said Labor MP Craig Langdon, a member of Parliament's Road Safety Committee, which conducted the inquiry.

It's a bit unclear what that slideshow you posted is talking about. Is that just measuring how often such a distraction occurred without deciding on the severity of the distraction, or is it measuring how often an incident causes a distraction to a driver? It seems like it's measuring the former, which isn't a good way on deciding whether activities should be banned or not. Especially since the next slide indicates that people spent more time on their cell phones than talking to passengers anyway.

The Australian study you posted about has no numbers to talk about, and it's not explicitly made clear whether it's percent of time spent being distracted or severity of distraction (although in this case it seems by the language to be more likely talking about severity of distraction).

I find linking to original studies more effective because there's no ambiguity as to their measuring systems or methodologies

Most of the information you hear or read about distracted driving is focused on cell phone use while driving. Evidence shows cell phone use is neither the most dangerous of distractions for drivers, nor is it the most common cause of car collisions.


In a Virginia Tech 100 car study, The most dangerous distracted driving activity was reaching for a moving object, making a crash 8 times more likely, while cell phone use was no higher than 2 1/2 times more likely to cause a collision.



Also crash statistics from at least two states, New York and Kentucky show cell phone use as a cause of much less than 1% of reported collisions.


In 2008 New York crash statistics showed inattention or driving distracted as the cause of 18% of collisions, while cell phone use was involved in only .3% of car crashes.

Kentucky 2008 crash data showed driver inattention or distracted driving as causing 24% of collisions and cell phone use as causing .8% of crashes.



It is worth noting New york has had laws against cell phone use while driving since 2001.

Kentucky just passed their first cell phone ban for drivers under 18, April 25th 2010, after these 2008 crash stats were reported.

Notice reported cell phone use in crashes is still under 1% in Kentucky even with cell phone use for all drivers being legal. (though the rate is slightly more than double that of New york.)

A NHSTA 2002 survey found .1% of drivers involved in collisions attributed the crash to cell phone use.

The conclusion here is, while Cell Phone use should not be ignored as a contribution to distracted driving collisions,other driving distractions are more common and actually cause more collisions than cell phone use.



Virginia Commonwealth university study in 2003 showed Looking at the scene of a crash caused the most collisons (16%) driver fatigue 12%, looking at other outside scenery 10%, passenger distraction 9%, while cell phone distraction was the cause of only 5% of the crashes.

NHSTA reports another 2003 study shows an outside object caused 23% of crashes while passengers caused 20% and cell phones 3.6%.