Texting while driving impairs motorists more than being under the influence of drink or drugs
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The RAC Foundation found average reaction times slowed by 35% when 17 to 24-year-olds drove in a simulator while writing or reading texts.
Nearly 50% of drivers aged between 18 and 24 texted while driving, it said.
Previous studies had found reactions were 21% slower among those who had taken cannabis and 12% slower among those who had drunk to the legal limit.
The texters also drifted out of lanes more and had poorer steering control.
The overall driving performance was poor among those tested by the Transport Research Laboratory, which also carried out the previous studies, the RAC Foundation said.
Steering control among drivers in the text test was 91% worse, compared with 35% worse for those under the influence of cannabis.
‘Hazardous’
The TRL study followed a poll of 3000 drivers conducted by the RAC Foundation on facebook earlier in 2008.
It found that 48% of 18 to 24-year-olds admitted to texting while driving.
BBC NEWS | UK | Text driving ‘worse than drink’
One Comment
Alex
September 23rd, 2008
at 2:22pm
Most people can’t chew gum and walk let alone text and drive. Using the cell phone while driving is a problem. Even though California has banned the use of cell phone usage without an earphone or Bluetooth you can still see people driving around with cell phones stuck to their ears. How some people get around the law is to text. Texting while driving is just plain stupid. To think that a separation of awareness is possible in a mobile state is unrealistic. But then, so many people think that their lives depend on maintaining contact with certain people at all times. These people overestimate their own importance.
Other studies in the UK and Canada have shown that ANY talking on a mobile phone, even if using a Bluetooth or other headset, still lowers the performance to that of a driver with a .8 blood alcohol reading. It’s the division of attention, not the use of the phone per se, and it’s bound to be worse when you add a mechanical process.
I’ve been using cell phones for fifteen years — I’ve had the same phone number for 12 — and I’ll bet you could count all the times I’ve spoken more than a few words on a cell when driving* and still be in two digits. As a professional driver (and former police driving instructor), it was clear to me from the beginning that I didn’t drive as well, and I have simply refused to do it. In my opinion, people who do it routinely — or even frequently — are idiots, and the ones who maintain it doesn’t affect their driving are totally in denial.
*I’m on the road, I’ll call you later. Bye.