Texting While Driving Increases Danger of Crashing, Study Finds
A report by University of Utah researchers found texting on
a cell phone while driving is six times more dangerous than talking on a cell
phone while on the road. The researchers used a driving simulator to determine
that people who texted and drove were far less likely to brake on time, were
liable to follow too closely behind other vehicles and experienced delayed
reaction time. The study found that compared with drivers' median reaction time
when talking and driving (an increase of nine percent compared to the
driving-only condition), reaction time shot up by 30 percent when drivers were
Participants in the study were 40 young adults ranging in
age from 19 to 23 years; 21 years was the average age. Among the participants,
20 were women and 20 were men. All participants had normal or
corrected-to-normal visual acuity, normal color vision and a valid,
nonprobationary driver's license, and had an average of 4.75 years of driving
experience with a range three to seven years. The participants were instructed
to retrieve the messages and to respond to them verbally, and effects on
driving behavior were measured in terms of time for braking onset. The study
found while participants were reading text messages, the braking times were
significantly longer and drivers drove slower than in baseline driving
During driving, the participant's task was to follow a pace
car driving in the right-hand lane of the simulated highway. In each scenario,
the pace car was programmed to brake at 42 randomly selected intervals and
would continue to decelerate until the participant depressed the brake pedal,
at which point the pace car would begin to accelerate to normal freeway speeds.
If the participant failed to depress the brake, he or she would eventually
collide with the pace car. The
brake lights of the pace car were illuminated throughout the deceleration
interval, the paper noted.
The researchers pointed out the locus of control of text
messaging compared with talking on a cell phone while operating a motor vehicle
is driver controlled; that is, the driver can choose when to enter a text
message, whereas a driver talking on a cell phone is more pressured into
"maintaining a particular pace of response". This situation provides drivers
with the possibility of choosing times of relatively little demand of the
driving task (little surrounding, smooth flowing traffic) for text messaging.
According to a survey conducted by Telstra in Australia, 30 percent of the
respondents admitted to having sent text messages while driving a vehicle, and
almost 20 percent regularly send text messages while driving.
A copy of the report, "Text Messaging During Simulated Driving," written by Frank A. Drews, Hina Yazdani, Celeste N. Godfrey, Joel M. Cooper, and David L. Strayer, of the University of Utah, was first published in "Human Factors," a professional journal of the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Human Factors and Ergonomic Society (HFES). The report is offered as a free download via the organization's Web site.