This paper examines the safety risks posed by the use of communications technology while driving, with a particular focus on texting. It argues that hands-free cell phone legislation is insufficient because the primary danger of phone use while driving is cognitive rather than merely visual. Drawing on research in brain science and human cognition, the paper explains why texting is even more hazardous than talking on a cell phone, combining continuous visual distraction with the same neural interference responsible for phone-related accidents. The paper also highlights the disproportionate danger faced by teenage drivers, who text more than any other demographic, and calls for stricter, more punitive legislative measures.
Just as more and more American states are enacting legislation to restrict the use of cellular phones while driving, an even more deadly habit has grown into a major concern: texting while driving. When cell phone use was becoming commonplace a little more than a decade ago, public safety experts began pointing out the potential risks associated with the use of cell phones by drivers. As a result, New York State became the first state to enact cell phone bans in motor vehicle codes, making it an enforceable and summonsable infraction (AHAS, 2005; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005). Several other states followed that lead and have since implemented similar legislation requiring drivers who use cell phones to use a hands-free device (AHAS, 2005; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005).
In principle, these new vehicular codes are well-intentioned but probably insufficient to reduce the specific risks posed by the use of cell phones by drivers. They are designed only to prevent drivers from looking at their handheld phones — presumably for dialing purposes — and from occupying their hands with cell phones when they should be holding the steering wheel and watching the road. That approach is insufficient for two specific reasons: (1) hands-free devices only allow the driver to speak without holding the phone; they do not necessarily eliminate the need for the driver to focus visual attention on the phone to dial or identify incoming callers, and (2) the most significant way that using cell phones while driving poses a safety risk has more to do with the nature of the neural patterns in the driver's brain associated with the mental task of having a conversation over the phone — it is not merely a matter of visual distraction (AHAS, 2005; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005; NYSDU, 2010).
According to brain experts and human cognition researchers, the human brain relies on different areas and mental processes when a person is having an in-person, face-to-face conversation versus a conversation with someone who is not present, such as over a telephone (Chisholm, Caird, & Lockhart, 2007; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005). The importance of this distinction is that the areas of the brain and the mental processes involved in conversations with remote participants overlap substantially with the areas of the brain most critical for perceiving, processing, and reacting to visual information from the external environment (Chisholm, Caird, & Lockhart, 2007; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005). Nevertheless, current legislation restricting cell phone use is still based on the more obvious danger of drivers being visually distracted by communications equipment in their hands.
The evidence is clear that the cognitive processes involved in carrying on a telephone conversation while driving dramatically increase the risk of serious and even fatal accidents (Chisholm, Caird, & Lockhart, 2007; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005). Statistically, talking on a cell phone while driving increases the likelihood of an accident by as much as being legally impaired by alcohol consumption (Hosking, Young, & Regan, 2007). However, the more recent problem of communicating via text messages while driving is even more dangerous than talking on the phone. That is because texting also involves the same brain regions and cognitive processes as telephone communication — the very processes responsible for the dangers associated with cell phone use — and combines that risk factor with an additional independent risk factor: continuous visual distraction.
Unlike cell phones, which distract the driver visually for only a small percentage of the time when used for verbal communication, texting while driving is a continuous visual distraction by its very nature, making it far more dangerous by comparison. Whereas cell phone users look at their devices only to dial or identify incoming calls, drivers who text must continually shift their attention back and forth between watching the road and looking at their communications devices. Especially at typical highway speeds, the amount of time required to look at a mobile device for texting purposes represents too long an interval to look away from the road if the driver encounters an emergency or any other situation requiring an immediate response (Chisholm, Caird, & Lockhart, 2007). At highway speeds, texting while driving is a modern form of Russian Roulette — using a vehicle instead of a loaded firearm. In congested urban environments, texting while driving may increase the chances of minor vehicular accidents more than driver fatalities, but it also dramatically increases the risk of fatal single-vehicle accidents involving pedestrians (AHAS, 2005; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2005; NYSDU, 2010).
"Teen drivers face compounded texting-related risks"
The sooner legislators recognize the need to enact more restrictive — and if necessary, more punitive — restrictions on the use of communications equipment while driving, the better, because any delay in that regard will probably be measurable in lives by the thousands.
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