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Posts Tagged ‘Road’

As most people would agree, operating a motor vehicle requires attention to avoid a catastrophe such as a crash. Obviously, there are numerous things that can distract a driver and create a potentially disastrous lapse in attention: retrieving an item that is dropped, holding a conversation with a passenger, or simply daydreaming while behind the wheel. Studies in the past 10 to 15 years however have consistently indicated that use of cell phones while driving is particularly risky. Undoubtedly, with well over 200 million cell phone users in the US alone risks are amplified based on frequency of use if nothing else.

Although initial studies probed issues related to the use of hand held devices which forced drivers to take their eyes off of the road while dialing, or use their hands to support the phone while talking, studies in more recent years have focused on examining the effects of distraction caused simply by talking on cell phones; even in the case of hands-free devices. The results of most of these studies concluded that although hands-free phones reduced the visual and mechanical distraction, the “cognitive” distraction of simply being involved in the cell phone conversation was still present and was more critical in impairing driver performance. Thus, switching to a hands-free device does not appear to reduce the risk of accident.

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