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Scientists at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute are skeptical, however, of simulator studies. In July the institute released a data analysis of the behavior of scores of drivers who agreed to have a camera placed in their vehicle for a year or so. After examining footage that preceded crashes and near crashes, the researchers concluded that while manual manipulation of a cell phone (dialing and texting) led to a greater risk of an accident, simple participation in a phone conversation (talking or listening) did not lead to a statistically significant increase in risk. The study will be presented next month...
...mitigated the more dangerous side effects of cell-phone use - it's just like talking to someone sitting next to you, isn't it? - a series of 2007 simulator tests conducted by Strayer seems to indicate the opposite. A passenger acted as another set of eyes for the driver in the test and even stopped or started talking depending on the difficulty of conditions outside the car. Meanwhile, half the drivers talking on a hands-free phone failed, bypassing the rest area the test had called for them to stop...
Part of the problem may be that when people direct their attention to sound, the visual capacity of their brain decreases, says Steven Yantis, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University. It can be as if a driver is seeing the image in her head of the person she is talking to, thereby decreasing her ability to see what's actually in front of her. "When people are listening to a cell-phone conversation, they're slower to respond to things they're looking at," Yantis says. "It requires you to select one thing...
...spite of the proliferation of anti-cell-phone laws, drivers' habits don't appear to be changing. A 2008 Nationwide Mutual Insurance survey found that only 63% of drivers planned to abide by laws prohibiting cell phones. So parents, employers and insurance companies are stepping in to help minimize driver distraction. In the next few months, several technology start-ups will release new products for phones that can detect when a car is in motion and automatically log incoming calls and texts much as a personal assistant would. All the products have provisions that allow both incoming and outgoing calls...
...Services to Reduce Driver Distraction Key2SafeDriving Parents can set up a password-protected profile that won't allow calls or texts when a Bluetooth device detects that the car is in motion. $99, then $10 per month for Web services...