Mobile phones and driving danger

mobile phone driving

The more you cycle, the more you notice how many motorists are using their mobile phones while at the wheel.

The threat of a penalty, which will soon comprise six points and a fine of £200, seemingly has little effect. The fact that drivers fail to take the matter seriously mirrors the apathy exhibited by the authorities; in 2015, cyclist Lee Martin was killed by a driver who had eight previous convictions for using his phone at the wheel. The number of convictions has also halved as have fines imposed by the courts. Another case in 2015 saw a driver who was talking on her phone hands-free run over and kill a two-year-old child. She was looking for a parking space while talking and assumed she had struck a shopping trolley, Harrow crown court was told. The driver escaped a jail sentence.

Hands-free use of phones has been shown to be more distracting to drivers than talking on a mobile. Perhaps drivers need to take everything about driving a little more seriously. A significant proportion of motorists appear to use a car like a washing machine; switch it on and then think about something else. Multi-tasking behind the wheel has become commonplace; eating, talking, arguing, changing music, checking makeup and admonishing children while driving are rarely perceived as posing a danger to ourselves or others. However, research carried out by the AAA Foundation for Traffic in Washington, DC, suggests that even seemingly minor tasks can be distracting.

Researchers asked participants to carry out tasks that ranged in complexity from listening to music up to verifying a number mathematical equations – memorising nouns between each calculations. The tasks were carried out at a desk top, at the controls of a driving simulator and finally behind the wheel of a real car.

The results were consolidated into a single number representative of the mental distraction caused by each task. The participants had their brain waves monitored for ‘event-related potentials’ and at the same time their reaction times were assessed. A score of 1.0 represented doing nothing at all and the maths and word-memory task scored 5.0. The results were surprising:

  • Listening to the radio scored 1.21, while having an audio book on the go increased that to 1.75
  • Making a hand-free phone call scored 2.27 and a conversation with a passenger in the same car was found to be more distracting at 2.33
  • Using a hand-held mobile phone to make a call while driving scored 2.45
  • The highest score, 3.06, was attained by those using hands-free texting

Hands-free texting is legal in Britain, but, as the research suggests, potentially deadly.

It always takes time before the law and social convention catch up with this kind of news – it took decades for drink driving to be considered unacceptable behaviour – but in the meantime, the safest course of action is to switch off your mobile entirely.

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Comments

  1. Robert

    Reply

    Depending on exactly how the measurements were carried out, I think the distriction measurement for talking to a passenger may be an over-estimate.

    I suspect this is because many ( most?) passengers are aware of what is going on around the car, and so will naturally let the conversation lapse when something on the road needs attention — coming onto a roundabout, or crossing lanes to get to a motorway exit.

    I only became aware of this on a long journey with a friend who had never had a driving license, and was all too aware how stressed I felt was when my passenger didn’t do that…

  2. Jen

    Reply

    Robert, assuming that passenger isn’t a child in the back of the car you might be right. Some passengers do stop talking at key moment, but the crucial point being made is that talking distracts drivers, whether they perceive that to be true or not. Should adults sharing a journey sit in silence? Well, probably yes. But the car sharing industry might suffer if they did that. Autonomous vehicles won’t solve this dilemma either; person behind the wheel should be ready and alert for anything going wrong. Of course, if autonomous cars do catch on ‘drivers’ will become wildly complacent about them and it will all end in tragedy at some point.

  3. Tony Williams

    Reply

    We might consider it astonishing that research is required to reveal what should be obvious: that when you are driving your full attention should be on that and on nothing else. But for decades the idea has gained strength that there are other things you can do – listen to music, listen to comedy shows, use your mobile phone, create pounding bass sounds audible from 50 yards away, drink from the cup resting in the purpose-designed holder the car manufacturer has helpfully provided for it, use the complex interactive screen to which both essential and totally unnecessary controls have been transferred…. In order to change attitudes there should be a consistent and sustained campaign, backed by consistently-applied sanctions. Such a campaign should focus on what’s realistic. Telling people they shouldn’t talk in a car would be unrealistic and counter-productive. Cracking down on drivers using mobile phones is essential, and included in that should be companies who expect their drivers to receive instructions on the move.

    The article is right when it says many drivers “switch [the car] on and think about something else”. Modern cars are so much safer, and once inside you can easily imagine that everything is being taken care of. Perhaps fully autonomous cars in which no human had control may one day be the answer. In the meantime much tougher tests to weed out those unsuitable to drive, regular re-testing, and a much higher level of disqualifications, would help considerably, but the media would never allow it even if there were politicians prepared to implement such things.

    • Sue

      Reply

      Tony, I entirely agree with your comments.

  4. Jen

    Reply

    “Telling people they shouldn’t talk in a car would be unrealistic and counter-productive. ”

    If we can tell them not to smoke in it, we can tell them not to talk in it.

  5. michael

    Reply

    This is an idea I have been thinking about for some time. Evidently the present penalties (£100 fine plus 3 points) are inadequate to deter people from using them. How about my idea? Make the Police confiscate the phone (including the SIM card) IMMEDIATELY. This should work as these idiots are so attached to their phones that they would feel like their right arm has been cut off if they lose their phone.
    The phone could only be retrieved (from the police station) after one week. If caught a second time, the police would retain it for two weeks. For a third offence, the phone would be retained for a month. Any subsequent offences would result in permanent confiscation. A fixed charge (say £25) could be applied upon retrieval to cover the Police costs.
    The need to retrieve the phone would cause inconvenience to the offenders, particularly if they had to travel out of their area to do so. I am sure this would be a more effective deterrent than the present fine & points.
    The Police already confiscate the vehicle from anyone using it without insurance so there is a precedent for confiscation. It is not as severe as confiscating the vehicle, but maybe this could be considered also for persistent offenders.
    I am sure the thought of losing their phone would be much more of a deterrent than the present penalties, which are obviously not working well, if at all.
    I feel that the proposed increase in penalties (fine plus points etc., are pointless).

    • The ETA

      Reply

      this would be considered by many as more severe than prison!

  6. Mary Fisher

    Reply

    ‘ … drivers need to take everything about driving a little more seriously … ‘

    No, not a LITTLE – a LOT. Including when driving is not necessary.

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