US withheld reports on the risks of driving while using mobile devices
The New York Times today published a previously unreleased body of research conducted by the Department of Transportation in 2003 on the safety effects of using cellphones and other wireless communications devices while driving.
The New York Times obtained the research from the Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen, two consumer advocacy groups that earlier this year acquired more than 250 pages of undisclosed material through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.Here is the takeaway: talking on a mobile, or worse yet, inputting text or fiddling around with an app -- all are forms of distraction while driving. The less distracted you are while driving, the safer you and everyone else on the road with you will be. Duh.
Documents: Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Related article: DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION: U.S. Withheld Data on Risks of Distracted Driving (Matt Richtel, NYT)
Previously on Boing Boing:
Radley Balko on NY Times photo: " I can't really conceive of a scenario where it wasn't staged."
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I'm sorry, is the implication that it is legal to use a mobile phone/PDA while driving in America? Are you allowed to juggle while driving? Long been illegal in Australia.
I'd say the take away, the one they were hiding, is that hands-free cell phone use is just as dangerous as holding the phone to your head, just as other studies have found, which means that all the hands-free cell phone laws are utter tosh.
Could it be that Congress Critters and other government types don't wish to give up their hands-free cell calls while driving? Or that the cell carriers don't want to loose the calls made while people are driving, and the extra equipment sales that go with?
I'd like to know why this study was quashed.
You say "duh", I say "♫♩ Survival of the fiiiiiittteeesssttttt ♬♪".
Dean, sadly it is often other people getting creamed by the less fit.
Anonymous #2, can you post a link to that study? I'd like to know how talking handsfree can be worse than having a conversation with your passenger. IMHO, the part that is the worst distraction is fiddling with the phone, not talking: to dial, pull out the antenna, tweak the volume, or even just hit the right button to answer a call. Mostly I hate to use a cell phone in a car anyway.
@5 I've heard that too. I always figured that when you're talking to a passenger you can have those pauses in conversation when you're paying extra attention to the road because something's going on. When you're on the phone, even hands free, the other person can't see it and there's pressure for the conversation to continue in a distracting moment. I have no idea if that's right, but that's been my observation in my own driving.
@ #5
Check TFA, page 3, section II. It's a scan, otherwise I'd cut and paste the relevant points.
People seem to mistake the true danger of talking on a cell phone. Yes, fiddling with equipment can be hazardous, but people intuitively know that and are at least aware of that danger--not that that makes it go away. People tend to over estimate their ability to multi-task, and as with being drunk, people talking on a phone think they are better at driving than they actually are, and talking on the phone is done over a longer period of time than fiddling with the phone. Talking on the phone is the primary disruptor--whether hands free or not--not fiddling with the equipment.
@themadlibrarian
I am a different anonymous but thats the point - talking with a passenger is like using a handsfree and both are distracting enough to significantly increase the risks. The actual phone fumbling may add a bit more but the bulk of the problem is the distraction of the conversation. To be really safe we should all ride solo in cars without radios and focus only on the operation of the vehicle. Of course, that aint gonna happen so now we argue about rules for what is reasonable risk
Stuff like this makes me get my "the gov. cannot regulate what I do in my own home/car/treehouse/outhouse" hackles all risen up.
But every time some asshole almost creams me in traffic because he's arguing with his kids on the cellphone-- I curse our gov.'s ineffectiveness.
But seriously, how could this be regulated? Like cops aren't overworked enough with ridiculous civil "crimes" like pot smoking and being mentally ill.
Drunk drivers cause FAR more fatalities every year, but we seem immune to it. It's the new technology that we are being convinced we should fear. Just like we should fear sex offenders lurking the interwebs for our children; and kids buying bomb kits online.
How many soap boxes was that for one post? Stepping down now...
@Mad Librarian
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16168-handsfree-phones-not-riskfree-for-drivers.html
'"When you take a look at the data, it turns out that a driver conversing with a passenger is not as impaired a driver talking on a cellphone," says Strayer. "The passenger adds a second set of eyes, and helps the driver navigate and reminds them where to go."
What's more, passengers simplify or slow their conversation in response to conditions on the road. "The difference between a cell-phone conversation and passenger conversation is due to the fact that the passenger is in the vehicle and knows what the traffic conditions are like," he says.'
go buzz
Its a bit like the time that idiot egged Prescott from 2 foot away and was surprised to get a punch on the jaw
"That letter said that hands-free headsets did not eliminate the serious accident risk. The reason: a cellphone conversation itself, not just holding the phone, takes drivers’ focus off the road, studies showed."
I want to get hands-free banned in Australia. Who wants to start a petition? Sign me up.
If non-ionizing radiation from mobil phones and mobile masts isn't affecting us and therefore isn't harmful for us, then why are they outlawing mobile masts?
Environmental Ministry steps up fight against cellular antennas
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3748067,00.html
Cellphone towers on rooftops to go
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\07\18\story_18-7-2009_pg11_2
Bex - yeah and I bet HE wasn't on his cellphone at the time! :-)
Hope your post on the Buzz thread entertains them just as much.
@Mad Librarian: The other reason that hands-free cell phones are worse than in-car conversations, besides the very big reason that Tomp mentioned, is that the almost subliminal cutting in and out of the cell phone and volume changes, which are not normally noticed by the person talking, are actually highly taxing to the brain. Thus it requires more concentration. [1]
Tomp's explanation is the more standard one, though, and could have been found with a 30-second Google search before doubting:
Hands-free mobile phones are 'more dangerous than drink-driving'
Driving study deals blow to hands-free phones
@AnoniMouse: The government has every right to regulate how cars are used on public roadways insofar as that use impacts public safety. More people die from car accidents than guns, after all.
You can regulate it by hammering it into kids when they're learning to drive, making the penalties _extremely_ stiff (loss of license for a period or a thousand dollar fine, perhaps) and then enforcing it more heavily than lesser offenses like speeding.
Studies have shown that it's almost as bad as driving drunk, so yes, we should be paying attention to people talking/texting.
Talking on a mobile phone while driving is a distraction that has led to serious accidents and injuries, including death. It is just as dangerous as driving while intoxicated.
My grandfather and father use(d) mobile ham radio rigs while driving pretty much their whole adult lives without incident.
Maybe ham radios are different? Maybe some people can do it and some cannot?
-KB7IQR
Yeah, drunk driving is dangerous, and talking on cellphones while driving is dangerous . . . but medical mistakes/mishaps kill more people than both these problems combined. Ban hospitals.
the "issue" here is that the report was suppressed... not the contents of the report... the fact that the results were suppressed.
who had them suppressed? why did commercial interests override public safety?
Just in case this might be of interest, I'm trying to promote some educational signage/ad art:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpurrin1/3741872453/
So are they saying that since the use of cell phones has increased, there has been an increase in accidents that is disproportionately large compared to any increases in population?
Been illegal for a while in England, maybe the way roads layouts are designed makes a difference? I'm under the impression that there are far more roundabouts on UK roads that do require some degree of thought to negotiate. Personal experience is that a manual gearbox and an irate phone call do inhibit concentration of the idiots I have to swerve to avoid daily.
I also spend a lot of time at work talking to people on mobiles and tend to “zone out” from my surroundings when there is a bad signal or noisy distraction – not good for concentrating on piloting a four wheeled death machine amongst other people. - Also re: recaptcha - anyone remember readers digest Word For The Day?, might be fun to intergrate into captcha thingy?
I would hazard a guess that cell phone use contributes to more collisions (and near-miss scares) than alcohol impaired drivers in the states these days. (The vast majority of daily commuters are soberly yakkin' away.)
The statistics are skewed because most people can easily deny they were on the phone when the "incident" occurred. (Unless, of course, the phone is impaled up their nostril when the EMTs arrive.)
Yes, the carriers records can prove the phone was "engaged" when the incident occurred, but most investigations of minor (property damage only) collisions will never go that far. ( Besides, proving the driver was actively conversing versus "not-really-listening-as-their-spouse-prattles-on" about whatever....)
Personally, I believe "hands-free = ok" laws are a reasonable compromise for a few reasons: 1. Reminds folks that cell phone use while driving is risky, 2. Allows drivers two hands for the operation the vehicle, 3. Is practically enforceable.
Cost benefit ratio. Hospitals sometimes lose lives trying to heal people. No hospitals means far, far, far more deaths than the number of people who die from iatrogenic mistakes. How many people are saved each day by commuters talking on the phone?
When I talk about regulation of cell phone use while driving, what I mean is; are we going to require that everyone talking on a cell phone be pulled over and ticketed?
I just think this is getting into some grey area, here. Then, are we going to ban smoking while driving? Searching for a lighter can be dangerous. What about radios? How about people with personality disorders? Road rage is dangerous too.
When you give...
"The government ... every right to regulate [X] insofar as that use impacts public safety" (Patrick Austin)
It gets dangerous. It gets V for Vendetta dangerous.
--and I understand that the real issue is that the reports were quashed. Further proof that you can't trust your government with too much power.--
Do we require that everyone that is visibly driving drunkenly get pulled over and ticketed? Yes. Why would this be any different, if it's even more dangerous?
All of this comparison between cell phone usage and drunkenness ignores the terrifying overlap of drunken cell phone drivers. I am sure the accident rate for them is close to 30%!
I've driven drunk a couple of times. I've driven while talking on the cell a few times, too. I absolutely guarantee that I was far more impaired while talking on the cell; the is no doubt about it. I would never dream of driving while drinking again. Ditto on the cell while driving.
I live in Atlanta Metro, the second busiest city for traffic in the country. I am almost involved in an accident on a daily basis and in each case, the other driver is talking on a cell phone and completely tuned out of what's going on around them. That anyone would even consider texting while driving is beyond comprehension. It evidences sheer stupidity and woeful irresponsibility. Any trucker caught doing this should have his/her CDL suspended.
And what is this fascination with texting to begin with? It's nonsensical. People, you're typing on a cell phone. Dial the number and talk.