I don't buy it, that talking on the phone with a hands-free device / bluetooth is more distracting than talking to your passenger in the passenger's seat or worse in the back seat. You have to focus on that conversation just as much with the additional chance that you may want to look at them.

Maybe this depends on the driver. A half million mile veteran probably has a lot of automatic reactions programmed into their head over a new driver that needs 100% of their brain to stay alert. I never have felt unsafe talking on bluetooth.

How about books on tape? Anyone done those? I think they are more distracting than phone calls!

G

aigel,

I confess fifteen years ago, I was one of those guys who drove while on the cel. Yes it was hands free.
At the time I didn't realize the danger, until one day I realized I had just driven by a flagman and was in the middle of a construction zone. I had been on the phone to a client.

It was a few months later when I was talking to my niece who had been part of the research team that had done the studies with the MRI.

When you are talking to someone who is physically present, you are receiving visual clues from that person which helps your mind evaluate what they are saying. If you are carrying on a conversation with a person not present, part of your brain is engaged trying to make up for the loss of visual data. That is the same part of the brain which feeds the decision making areas data on our surroundings, (such as flagmen, a pedestrian on the crosswalk, etc.).

It is the time spent disengaging from one mental activity to get the situational awreness to the decision making part of the brain that causes the problem.

A few years ago, I watched a demonstration of young people invited to go through a driving game. First they were allowed to drive though the course of city streets. Then they were engaged in a conversation with someone 'off stage' on a cel. Even though they were driving the same course, the errors/accidents/collisions were sobering. These were kids who grew up with this stuff, but their brains had not adapted to the multi-tasking.

Best
Les

I can understand talking on the phone for business, but I hear guys yapping like teenage schoolgirls all the time. I feel sorry and embarrassed for them.... Cell phones are turning the masses into pussies.
I mean driving is my solitude time, WTF would I want to talk to anyone then?

I must remonstrate. I & a few others are of the opinion when talking to a passenger, they often perceive visual cues relevant to a current driving situation & can react & temper their actions accordingly. A person 'on-the-other-end' however, has no such situational awareness & could very well prove to be a distraction - especially if both parties are involved in an emotional &/or heated conversation. At the end of the day, no matter how you slice it or rationalize this whole 'multi-tasking' thing - we ain't wired for this & we do a lousy job of it.

Personally, I make it a cardinal rule to not answer my cell while driving & I try to refrain from any heavy conversation with passengers.

Cheers
JB