Do you DRIVE like you're SEVENTY FIVE??

Study: Cell Phone Use Ups Accident Risk

Wed Feb 2, 7:19 AM ET Technology - AP

By LEON D'SOUZA, Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY - Talking on a cell phone makes you drive like a retiree — even if you're only a teen, a new study shows. A report from the University of Utah says when motorists between 18 and 25 talk on cell phones, they drive like elderly people — moving and reacting more slowly and increasing their risk of accidents.

"If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, his reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver," said David Strayer, a University of Utah psychology professor and principal author of the study. "It's like instant aging."

And it doesn't matter whether the phone is hand-held or handsfree, he said. Any activity requiring a driver to "actively be part of a conversation" likely will impair driving abilities, Strayer said.

In fact, motorists who talk on cell phones are more impaired than drunken drivers with blood-alcohol levels exceeding 0.08, Strayer and colleague Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology, found during research conducted in 2003.

Their new study appears in this winter's issue of Human Factors, the quarterly journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Strayer said they 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 a cell phone.

In the simulator, each participant drove four 10-mile freeway trips lasting about 10 minutes each, talking on a cell phone with a research assistant during half the trip and driving without talking the other half. Only handsfree phones — considered safer — were used.

The study found that drivers who talked on cell phones were 18 percent slower in braking and took 17 percent longer to regain the speed they lost when they braked.

The numbers, which come down to milliseconds, might not seem like much, but it could be the difference to stopping in time to avoid hitting a child in the street, Strayer said.

The new research questions the effectiveness of cell phone usage laws in states such as New York and New Jersey, which only ban the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. It's not so much the handling of a phone, Strayer said, but the fact that having a conversation is a mental process that can drain concentration.

The only silver lining to the new research is that elderly drivers using a cell phone aren't any more of a hazard to themselves and others than young drivers. Previous research suggested older drivers may face what Strayer described as a "triple whammy."

"We thought they would be really messed up because not only are they slower overall due to age, there's also a difficulty dividing attention," Strayer said.

But the study found that more experience and a tendency to take fewer risks helped negate any additional danger.

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You dont see much of this here now, 'cause if your caught on the phone while driving now its 1:3 penalty points, and 12 points and your off the road for 2 years! So not much people are still driving on the phone, you stil get the odd ejit tho!

Phones aren't illegal while driving anywhere in the US.... as it said... 2 states require that you not actually hold the phone but use a headset....

In Aussie we can use a hands free device but you can't actually hold the phone to your ear - that has a pretty high fine - but you still see heaps of people doing it - it really drives me crazy - a truck nearly hit me because the driver was trying to turn the corner with one hand while using the other to talk on his phone - he was using his elbow and hand trying to turn the wheel without much success

lol I drive like a 70 year old even without the cell phone.

Are you 70??

I prefer the hands free device... I rarely talk and when I do I don't usually have personal conversations on the phone... whilst driving. And certainly not when I'm driving fast! ..and I thought it was illegal to drive and talk on the cell in certain areas of the US? Like in hospital zones comes immediately to mind... used to be on airlines... in certain federal buildings where only certain folks having high level security clearance can venture... cellphones simply won't pick up a signal... I wonder if there will be something like that ever in effect on major highways any time soon?

If your phone has Voice Command and a speakerphone , then you don't need a headset. VC will allow you to search the phone directory and dial using your voice without any pre-sets. Also VC will read your email to you and then Reply again using voice, so your emailing is hands free. One step further , VC will help you surf the web using your voice and read info to you from the web-- hands free is the way to go.

I agree with the headset thing... it is the only way I use the phone... and honestly, I only use it on highways.... Its usually to catch up with the fam because they don't mind when I say "oops... traffic... gotta go"

Its only legal here with the headset aswell, ah there gob****es anyway, they ban everything here! But their a bit strange with rules, i dunno if its still in, you use to not be allowed make voice calls on your phone, BUT your were allowed play games! !
I dunno if thats gone but it was here a few years back!