elaich wrote:
> George > wrote in -
> september.org:
>
>> Should we also have laws that we can't
>> change the station on the radio or talk to a vehicle occupant too?
>>
>
> That is a completely different thing. The brain is capable of multitasking
> in it's normal environment. We are surrounded by sounds that do not
> distract us from what we are doing. Most people are able to drive while
> talking to a passenger, changing the radio, etc.

Not true, and it's also not true that the hands-free option is safer.

Below are some exerpts from
http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/i...ce/cellphones/
(I'll let folks read the rest for themselves). Those who want their
ObFood can read the next paragraph and skip the OT stuff that follows.

ObFood: Today, I need to bake bread, and I want to do something
different. Thinking of adding caramelized onions to my regular loaf, but
might go searching for something fun. Any ideas?

Serene



# Motorists who use cellphones while driving are four times as likely to
get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves, according to a
study of drivers in Perth, Australia, conducted by the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety. The results, published in July 2005,
suggest that banning hand-held phone use will not necessarily improve
safety if drivers simply switch to hand-free phones. The study found
that injury crash risk didn't vary with type of phone.

# Many studies have shown that using hand-held cellphones while driving
can constitute a hazardous distraction. However, the theory that
hands-free sets are safer has been challenged by the findings of several
studies. A study from researchers at the University of Utah, published
in the summer 2006 issue of Human Factors, the quarterly journal of the
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, concludes that talking on a
cellphone while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk, even if the
phone is a hands-free model. An earlier study by researchers at the
university found that motorists who talked on hands-free cellphones were
18 percent slower in braking and took 17 percent longer to regain the
speed they lost when they braked.

# A September 2004 study from the NHTSA found that drivers using
hand-free cellphones had to redial calls 40 percent of the time,
compared with 18 percent for drivers using hand-held sets, suggesting
that hands-free sets may provide drivers with a false sense of ease.

# A study released in April 2006 found that almost 80 percent of crashes
and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention
within three seconds of the event. The study, The 100-Car Naturalistic
Driving Study, conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), breaks
new ground. (Earlier research found that driver inattention was
responsible for 25 to 30 percent of crashes.) The new study found that
the most common distraction is the use of cellphones, followed by
drowsiness. However, cellphone use is far less likely to be the cause of
a crash or near-miss than other distractions, according to the study.
For example, while reaching for a moving object such as a falling cup
increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by nine times, talking or
listening on a hand-held cellphone only increased the risk by 1.3 times.
The study tracked the behavior of the 241 drivers of 100 vehicles for
more than one year. The drivers were involved in 82 crashes, 761
near-crashes and 8,295 critical incidents.

# These findings confirm an August 2003 report from the AAA Foundation
for Traffic Safety that concluded that drivers are far less distracted
by their cellphones than by other common activities, such as reaching
for items on the seat or glove compartment or talking to passengers.
That study was based on the analysis of videotapes from cameras
installed in the vehicles of 70 drivers in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

--
42 Magazine, celebrating life with meaning. Inaugural issue is here!
http://42magazine.com

"But here's a handy hint: if your fabulous theory for ending war and
all other human conflict will not survive an online argument with
humourless feminists who are not afraid to throw rape around as an
example, your theory needs work." -- Aqua, alt.polyamory