MSNBC: Cell phone talkers as bad as drunk drivers

[jbooma]

It is only a matter of time when they ban cell phones in car, period. I can't stand it when people are on phones and they decide to go in 3 other lanes :doh:

My friend was driving to DC and a SUV on a celly decided to make a left hand turn from the right hand lane and clipped a biker, lucky for the rider he had on the super leather, or it would have been very bad.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13621877/

WASHINGTON - People who talk on cell phones while driving, even using "hands-free" devices, are as impaired as drunk drivers, researchers said Thursday.

"If legislators really want to address driver distraction, then they should consider outlawing cell phone use while driving," said Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah who worked on the study.

The researchers used a driving simulation device for their study, published in the summer 2006 issue of Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society...

[pez]

I haven't noticed the impairment in hands free drivers, but whenever I get a bozo in the fast lane going 10-15 miles below the speed limit, they seem to always have a cell phone in their hands when I pass them. This is why I recommend we get bumper car rubber all the way around cars, so I can give them a "gentle" nudge to wake their butt up!

[Thiebear]

Saw it on Mythbusters a while back...

Drunk was better than cell phone...

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2005/06/mythbusters_killer_brace_posit.html

Cellphone vs. Drunk Driving

Myth: It is just as dangerous to talk on a cellphone as it is to drive drunk.

A British study that asked subjects to do memory tests, reasoning, and mental arithmetic, found that cellphone use did hurt driving. The study also compared it to drunk driving, though Adam didn't describe the exact results of that comparison.

For this mythbusting, they wanted to focus on the talking aspect of cellphones, instead of dialing, as drivers would some sense to them would dial when the car was not moving.

For the test they used Kari and Adam as the test drivers and they went to Infineon Raceway near Sonoma. The test course had four parts:

Accelerate to 30mph and then stop at a stop sign.

Parallel park

Time trial: average 15mph through the whole course (not faster or slower)

Accident avoidance: while going 30mph, told to switch to left, right, or center lane

Each part was graded by an instructor who was in the car with them.

Sober/Control Run

Both Adam and Kari passed the course, though Kari had a bit of trouble parallel parking.

Cellphone Run

For the cellphone run, Jamie talked to the driver on a cellphone asking three types of questions:

repeat the sentence (e.g. "The driver was stopped for driving 67mph in a 20mph zone")

verbal puzzle "If Jack stole Ann's ball, who's the thief", and the more difficult, "If you see a picture with a diamond, rectangle, and a circle, and the circle is to the right of the rectangle, and directly above the diamond, is the rectangle right above the diamond?"

list five things about a particular subject "Give me five things that are in the interior of your car," "Give me five things that are part of your daily work."

Kari failed, including offenses such as using her elbow to steer and failing over half of the obstacles. Adam failed as well.

FYI: Kari's answers to "give things that are part of your dialy work" included: "Kissing ass" and "doing my hair." Adam's daily work list included the more boring: "drilling and tapping," "making phone calls," "Checking my e-mail," "avoiding phone calls from certain people."

Drunk Driving Run

Both Adam and Kari got their blood alcohol level to just below 0.08 (legal limit), with police officers on hand to do the breathalyzer. Neither Adam nor Kari had eaten, so both were as hungry as they were tipsy.

Kari zipped through the stop sign, but her parallel parking was "one of her best efforts... marginally good." She went too fast through the time trial part and killed a couple cones. She failed again, but not as bad as with the cellphone test.

Adam failed the parking test, and "half failed" the time trial for not looking both ways. Overall he failed as well.

Overall

The cellphone tests were failed by a much bigger margin, though Adam's observation was that you can put down a cellphone -- you can't get instantly undrunk. Also, they tested the drunk driving below the California legal limit -- Adam, at least, has gotten much drunker for MythBuster tests than that.

Confirmed

[APBT]

They are!!

Today I wished I had the power to puff my way to the passenger seat and slap the sheep out of the lady on her cell phone who was just having a good ole time, while the very passionate people behind me swerve in anger.

[APBT]

I haven't noticed the impairment in hands free drivers, but whenever I get a bozo in the fast lane going 10-15 miles below the speed limit, they seem to always have a cell phone in their hands when I pass them. This is why I recommend we get bumper car runner all the way around cars, so I can give them a "gentle" nudge to wake their butt up!

I like your style. Man they get to me.

I drive fast when I am on my cell phone, especially when a router goes down.

[Larry]

I keep remembering a study that was done many years ago, by an organization of car insurance comapnies. (People who, I'd assume, have an agenda of preventing accidents, but aren't biased either for or against cell phone companies.)

The study was done some time ago, when car phones were rare, and had to be installed in the car.

The studies conclusions:

Merely installing a phone in a car increases the odds that that car will have a claim by 40%.

If the phone is used 50 minutes a month or more, the odds of an accident tripple.

If you look at the number of accidents, and corelate with the number of minutes the cell phone was used, then cell phone users have accidents three times more often than people driving drunk.

(However, the average dollar amount per claim was lower than for drunk drivers.)

[ashburnskinsfan]

duplicate post below - text deleted

[ashburnskinsfan]

I guess I'm not often on the roads late at night when drunk drivers are most likely to be about, but I would argue that a majority of times I see bad driving, i.e. a car going too slow, drifting, making late signals etc, the driver is on a cell phone.

Hands free helps, but if you are focusing on a conversation you can't be fully focussed on your driving. That most often wil not lead you to cause an accident but if another driver does something stupid, you are less able to react and avoid an incident.

[fight_on_til_you_have_won]

My wife and I saw the scariest thing we've ever seen on the road -- an old lady driving while talking on a cell phone. :doh:

I know that there is a device that can kill cell phone connections within like a 50-100 foot radius. That's what I want to get. More than half the times someone does something stupid on the road, they're on the ****ing phone. Bugs the **** out of me.

And yes, I use my cell phone while I'm driving on occasion (most often it's while sitting in traffic on the way home from work). But if I feel like I can't drive as well as I could when I'm not on the phone, then I'll hang up. Simple concept, really.

[Larry]

I've fantasised about putting a cell phone jammer in my car, always on whenever the motor's running.

But it's occurred to me that if I did, then instead of being surrounded by people who're talking on the phone, I'll be surrounded by people who're looking at the phone and yelling "Hello! Can you here me? Hello! (look at phone) Hello?"

[fight_on_til_you_have_won]

But it's occurred to me that if I did, then instead of being surrounded by people who're talking on the phone, I'll be surrounded by people who're looking at the phone and yelling "Hello! Can you here me? Hello! (look at phone) Hello?"

I've thought about that too, and the potential for added danger that could present in certain situations, but then it gets overruled by how funny that **** would be. :laugh:

[SkinsNut73]

Our fire dept responded to an incident yesterday...a report of a motorcycle vs. car.

We arrived on scene to find one of our own firemen was the guy on the motorcycle. The person in the car was talking on the cell phone and did not notice the RED LIGHT and ran right up the guy's ass. He's in the hospital with a broken leg, fractured ankle and cuts/scrapes/bruises all over the rest of his body.

I really like pez's bumper car rubber idea:)

[rincewind]

And, evidently, neither are as bad as drunk, masterbating NBA players. :laugh:

:jerk: