Drivers talking on mobile phones canmiss seeing up to 50% of their driving environment
id like to take the test on that to prove them wrong, talking to a passenger is more dangerous as you tend to look at them when talking
I would agree, I talk every day on the way and returning from work on handsfree, never had an accident and see a far worse standard of driving from people not on the phones.
the article is written to promote a hands free blocking gadget so would be very wary of the data.
I do however think the texting part is correct and should result in a ban.
I would agree too. though I don’t talk every day to and from work, as I tramp all week.
I find that if I’m talking to the Mrs, or another Driver (trucker), if I go quiet they don’t tend to jump in wanting a response, as if they’re picking on the fact that I’m dealing with something, I think I do the same to fellow Drivers.
I was suspicious to all the stats in that report as soon as I realised they were just trying to flog a solution to a problem they were inventing
robroy:
6 months automatic ban for car drivers when caught.
12months automatic ban for truck drivers when caught.
Job sorted in one week
There is no need to pick up a phone to call/answer when driving… with blue tooth and hands free kits on market, and anybody that texts while driving are lacking intelligence anyway, and should be disqualified on that basis alone
Agreed, the Bluetooth devices are so cheap now its a no brainer. I bought My wife a device that is (now) hard wired into her car radio primarily to operate her Ipod through the radio. it also works as a Bluetooth system for the phone through the radio.
"We spend time thoroughly researching our market place "
Apparently not enough to read a research paper jointly done by London School of Economics here in the UK and Carnegie Mellon University in the USA, both very prestigious universities which proved that using mobiles has no measurable effect on accident rates.
“For the study, Bhargava and the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Vikram S. Pathania examined calling and crash data from 2002 to 2005.
During these three years phone operators began offering price plans that included free calls on weekdays after 9pm.
The researchers identified calls made on phones while driving by checking which calls were routed through multiple cellular towers and discovered that the amount of calls made by drivers at 9pm increased by 7 per cent. They then compared the relative crash rates before and after 9pm using data on approximately 8 million crashes across nine U.S states, as well as the list of all fatal crashes across the country. Bhargava and Pathania found that the increased phone use by drivers at 9pm had no corresponding effect on crash rates.”
I am very wary of studies based on official accident rates, as they would appear to be only considering accidents that are reported to the authorities. The sort of stuff that does not generally get reported to TPTB (and even if it is reported, never makes it into the official accident statistics) - e.g. nose-to-tail shunts, damage-only bumps and bashes - simply doesn’t register.
I’d be happier seeing the results of objective examination of driving standards with/without phone use - e.g. looking at drivers’ ability to keep in lane, react to hazards etc.
