Hands free devices still a dangerous distraction
In all the recent news about texting bans, the dangers of hands free devices might be getting lost in the background noise. Just because you can keep both hands on the steering wheel, talking with a hands free device has been shown to still increase the risk of a serious car accident.
Studies have repeatedly shown that talking on the phone, hands free or not, decreases your ability to react to changing road conditions. Participants in one study were, on average, more than 100 milliseconds delayed in responding to sudden obstacles behind the wheel. That small difference in reaction time translates to about 10 - 20 feet in stopping distance for a car traveling at highway speeds.
Scientists say that the reason for the decrease is simply that the brain isn't as good at multi-tasking as many people think. The brain can only process a certain amount of information presented to it at once and performing tasks requiring concentration, like carrying a phone conversation, can interfere with processing road conditions.
There's even a difference between a conversation on the phone and one with a passenger in the car. Researchers are divided on the explanation, but numerous experiments have shown talking on a cell phone is more distracting and impairing than talking with a passenger in the car. A driver on the phone is four times more likely to make an avoidable driving error, like missing an exit, than a driver conversing with passengers. One possible explanation is that the passenger is also paying attention to the road and the flow of the conversation synchronizes with the flow of the drive with lulls during tricky driving maneuvers.
Some distractions are unavoidable, but the most important thing to remember is to respect the extent that these distractions impair your driving. Distracted driving is a major cause of car accidents in Missouri and hopefully with more education on the subject we can limit the number of avoidable tragedies.
