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Study: Texting dangerous while driving

Truckers who text while driving run the risk of a crash or a near crash event more than 23 times as high as non-distracted driving, according to a new study, which advocates banning texting while driving for all drivers.

The new Virginia Tech Transportation Institute research also supported recently released National Highway Transportation Safety Administration reports that “headset cell phone use is not substantially safer than handheld” use. This is because the risk with both is that answering, dialing and other tasks require driver’s eyes to be off the road, VTTI stated.

The institute conducted several large-scale, naturalistic driving studies, using sophisticated cameras and instrumentation in participants’ vehicles.

The research was aimed at trying to get “a clear picture of driver distraction and cell phone use under real-world driving conditions.” Cameras continuously observed drivers for more than 6 million miles of driving.

Texting drew the driver’s eyes away long enough from the roadway to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph.

VTTI did not provide a comparison for texting while driving for car and light truck drivers, but did compare truck and passenger vehicle driving on other tasks for risk of crash or a near crash situation. It found that:

Truckers were nearly six times more likely to be at risk while dialing a cell phone, while a passenger vehicle operator was nearly 3 times as likely. Truckers were nearly seven times as likely to be at risk when reaching for an electronic device, but passenger vehicle operators were more than one time as risky. Talking or listening increased risk much less for four-wheelers and not at all for truckers.
These researchers said the new data “show conclusively that a real key to significantly improving safety is keeping your eyes on the road.”

“Cognitively intense” tasks, such as emotional conversations and listening to audio books can have a measurable effect in a lab setting, but the actual driving risks are much lower in comparison.

Text messaging is banned for all drivers in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Novice drivers are banned from texting in ten states and school bus drivers are banned from text messaging in only one state, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

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