So, as I indicated in the previous post, there appears to be a bit of disagreement as to the relative distracting influence of driving while having that phone conversation. Is the phone conversation a distraction? Absolutely. Does the conversation take up over a third of the brain’s processing power? You bet it does, and the brain scans prove it. However, is it as big a bogy as texting or some of the other activities we love to do instead of just driving? Well, that’s what seems to be in question. This is the result of new traffic safety research called Naturalistic studies.
A Naturalistic study doesn’t measure brain activity, test drivers on a simulator, study old crash reports or ask drivers to describe how they think they reacted (or what they admit to doing) during a crash that happened to them in the past. A Naturalistic study shows, in real time, what is really happening inside and outside the car or truck or bus at the time of the crash (or near-crash).
Imagine watching, by means of TV cameras, 100 or more drivers in their vehicles as they do their normal daily driving for a year or more. That’s 100 years of real driving experience. You’re also watching cameras showing what the driver sees (or doesn’t see) out their front window, what’s happening all around the vehicle and, by means of a black box, all of the forces (braking and steering) being put on the car. SO, when heavy braking or steering occurs, the computer tells the researcher to look at this part of the recording and see what was going on at the time. Now the researcher really can see what was going on in the actual driving environment both inside and outside the car.
“Don’t the drivers end up performing to the cameras and driving more carefully,” you ask? Nope. After a very short time they completely ignore them and do all of the stuff they normally do, and I mean ALL of the stuff.
So, here is what the researchers found out about this distraction thing after analyzing what in essence is years of these real driving experiences. Vision is King. The in-car, or truck or bus experiences that take our eyes away from the job of driving are the most dangerous. Yes, the mental distraction is real, but the visual distraction is #1, or so these naturalistic studies show.
Yes, as I said, the mental distraction of the cell phone conversation is real, as is any other conversation. HOWEVER, it would appear that we adult humans are so good at the daily driving habits, that we naturally compensate for this mental distraction and do things like allowing more space around our vehicle or slowing down when we are so distracted.
But, you say, why then do so many crash reports indicate that someone was on the phone at the time of the crash? Well, if we asked the drivers, I’ll bet they would also tell us that they were breathing at the time of the crash. That’s why the folks analyzing the data from the naturalistic studies looked at what driver activities were common at the time of crashes (or near crashes), yet uncommon during the rest of the drive. These days, cell phone use during the drive is practically as common as tuning the radio or any other activity done while driving. What was most common during these events, yet uncommon during the rest of the drive, was texting and other activities that took the driver’s eyes off of the road. If the truth be known, many drivers using hands-free cell phones or Bluetooth devices still probably took their eyes off of the road to manually manipulate some part of the communication experience (even absent mindedly) at the time of the incident.
Yup, I know you think I’m talking crazy talk here. We all know cell phones used in the car, truck or bus are bad, right? Yet, cell phone use is WAY up while injury crashes are declining. No, I’m not defending the use of cell phones in the car, bus or truck. And I certainly know that new drivers must absolutely avoid using ‘em (and having other kids in the car) while learning to drive. All I’m saying is that we are just beginning to learn how to measure and evaluate how the technology that we love fits into the highly complex environment of the highway transportation system and human behavior. I throw this out there because I found it interesting and hope that you’ll add it to all of the other information that you use when thinking about your total safe driving experience.
Many years ago Jim Morrison (The Doors) sang “keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel.” Looks like he knew all along what the research was going to show us.
Be safe.
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