Research Confirms Danger of Talking on the Phone While Driving

John Cooper

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Recent research has looked at the human brain's ability to multi-task like driving and talking on the cell phone at the same time. The conclusion is that people are not as efficient as they think at being able to concentrate on two things at once. Car crashes and serious personal injury may be the result of driver distractions like cell phones. The researchers found that there was a delay of up to a second when people in the study were given two tasks at the same time. One second may not sound like much, however, one second can mean the difference between life and death on the road. A car going 60 mph is traveling at about 90 feet per second. A one second delay in response time on the highway can lead to killing someone or yourself. That precious second of attention has been the cause of many wrongful deaths and injuries in vehicular wrecks.

As I was driving down the road in my car the other day, I saw another driver in a truck move slightly into my lane. I looked over and saw a young man attempting to push buttons on a digital device while driving. He was clearly not paying enough attention to the road. He did not even realize that he had drifted into my lane. I am lucky that a crash did not occur. I had to react quickly to try to prevent a wreck by moving over, given the tendency of SUVs to flip over. Simply this maneuver even without contact between the two vehicles could have resulted in an accident in which I and my children were either killed or hurt. I was really angry. However, this situation is far from uncommon. Drivers have to pay more attention to the road and have less distractions. People need to realize and be educated that driving while talking on a cell is almost as dangerous as drunk driving. I hope that the law in Virginia (VA) will evolve to limit these distractions to prevent accidents in the future.