While driving to the beach with my wife and children, we came upon a typical summer storm. As the sky got darker and the downpours got heavier, I instinctively turned off the radio and asked the kids to be very quiet while we drove through the storm. The kids of course wanted to know why they had to be quiet and I replied, “So I can see better.”
I’m sure we’ve all been there, we turn down the radio…. so we can see better. And we do seem to be able to see better, but why?
The answer lies in our minds, and how we as drivers focus our attention in all driving situations. Throughout my twenty year career representing victims of personal injury in Virginia, I have seen my share of accidents that were caused by driver inattention or distracted driving.
Even though the phrase “distracted driving” has been popularized by the use of cell phones to text, drivers have been distracted since, well, the invention of cars. Cell phones have only made the problem much worse.
2013 AAA Foundation Study: “Measuring Cognitive Distraction Within the Automobile”
The not-for-profit foundation AAA was founded in Washington, D.C in 1947 for the purpose of saving lives and reducing injuries for car accident victims. Throughout the years they have done this by studying accident causes and prevention strategies. In 2013, the AAA Foundation conducted a study to compare the dangers of distracted driving and to further educate the public on consequences of this deadly behavior.
Conventional wisdom and clever marketing tells us that “hands free” phones are safer to use, because our hands and hopefully our eyes are on the steering wheel and the road, respectively. AAA Foundation wasn’t so sure, so their experiments used the following scenarios:
1)A single task condition to establish a baseline. (Study participant operated a simulator with no external distraction.)
2) Driver listened to the radio.
3)Driver listened to a book on tape.
4)Driver conversed with a passenger seated next to participant.
5)Driver conversed on a hand held cell phone.
6)Driver conversed on a hands-free cell phone.
7)Driver used a speech-to-text interfaced e-mail system.
8) Driver asked to complete auditory OSPAN task. Participants were asked to complete a serious of 2 step mathematical equations and told to remember a word between each problem. At the end of the exercises, participants had to recall the words in order.
In the first experiment, participants were asked to complete the above tasks without the driving simulator. Each task was evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5 for the level of cognitive distraction. Scenarios 1-3 rated low on the scale, while 5-8 rated the highest and most likely to cause increased distraction.
In the second experiment, participants completed the same tasks while operating a driver simulator. The simulator used a car following paradigm on a multi-lane road with moderate traffic. The lead vehicle in the simulator braked periodically, so following distance and brake reaction time was also measured. Reaction time slowed significantly relative to the level of cognitive distraction.
The same occurred in the third experiment, again, simulators were used, however the paradigm was changed. In this experiment, the driver had to navigate streets and cross intersections. Eye movement was recorded and measured. In this experiment, participants increasingly failed to scan the roadway and intersections for potential hazards when completing scenarios 6-8. Keep in mind that scenarios 6-8 were hands-on, eyes-on tasks.
Lessons Learned
We as a society are becoming more and more addicted and dependent to our technology, our jobs, our social media, and visual entertainment. While we may feel pressure to be more productive in the 24 hours that each of us are given, it may not always be to our benefit to try to multi-task all the time, especially when this multi-tasking is occurring behind the wheel.
Car manufacturers have taken a “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach by making options such as voice-controlled Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and social media posting capabilities options available on newer vehicles. This study shows that voice interaction, while hands free, is not “brain free” and compromises the driver’s cognitive abilities that are needed to operate the vehicle safely. The study also demonstrated that the speech to text task required the most cognitive interaction, therefore causing the greatest impairment. Having voice-command options such as these are intended to be safer, but actually may prove to compromise driver ability and have a negative affect on public safety.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a distracted driving car accident, call Paul Thomson of The Thomson Law Firm today for your free consultation (540) 777-4900. For a list of my results, click here.
