WASHINGTON-First, talking on a cell phone while behind the wheel was likened to drinking and driving. Now, drivers yakking on cell phones are being compared to senior citizens-slow reactions and all.
That is the conclusion of a new study by University of Utah researchers.
“If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, their reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver who is not using a cell phone. It’s like instantly aging a large number of drivers,” said David Strayer, a University of Utah psychology professor and principal author of the study.
Frank Drews, assistant professor of psychology and study co-author, added: “If you want to act old really fast, then talk on a cell phone while driving.”
The new study was published in the winter issue of Human Factors, the quarterly journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
The study found that when 18- to 25-year-olds were placed in a driving simulator and talked on a cellular phone, they reacted to brake lights from a car in front of them as slowly as 65- to 74-year-olds who were not using cell phones.
Elderly drivers became even slower to react to brake lights when they spoke on cell phones. The new data found that drivers who talked on cell phones-regardless of age-were 18 percent slower in hitting their brakes than drivers who did not operate cell phones. Drivers chatting on cell phones also had a 12-percent greater following distance-an effort to compensate for paying less attention to road conditions-and took 17 percent longer to regain the speed they lost when they braked, according to the study.
The study also revealed a twofold increase in the number of [simulated] rear-end collisions when drivers were conversing on mobile phones.
Strayer and his colleagues gained notoriety for a 2001 study showing that hands-free cell phones are just as distracting as hand-held cell phones. In a follow-up 2003 study, the University of Utah researchers pointed to “inattention blindness,” in which motorists can look directly at road conditions but not really see them because they are distracted by a cell phone conversation, as the reason hands-free devices are ineffective. The research has called into question legislative efforts by various states to ban motorists from using handheld but not hands-free cell phones.
In another study, the results of which were presented at a scientific meeting in 2003, researchers said data showed that motorists who talk on cell phones are more impaired than drunken drivers with blood-alcohol levels exceeding 0.08-the legal limit.
