Talking and driving more dangerous if you're alone

A new study published in the latest edition of Accident Analysis & Prevention has found that talking to passengers in the car is less dangerous than talking on a hands-free phone. The study is a follow-up to one published two years ago that established that drivers chatting on the phone were more than four times more likely to …

[Trevor Watt]

Time for a two seater sports car!

Driving with two or more passengers doubles your cahnces of having an accident? From now on I will avoid getting the bus!

Time to sell my 7 seater and get a Lotus I think!

[Nomedias]

Headsets

I read the title and got real worried for a second, but then I realized it only involved talking to people other than yourself. Most people just think I have a headset on. ;)

On that subject, did they factor in those using headsets or bluetooth built-in to the car? If they lumped them all together, I suspect handset users would have even greater chances.

[hugo tyson]

There are bad passengers too

I've always felt that a (handsfree) phone conversation whilst driving cannot be as safe as talking to a passenger in the vehicle simply because a competant, considerate passenger stops talking at junctions, when reading roadsigns, when manouvering, ie. whenever the driver has to concentrate a bit more.

A voice on the phone can't know what hazards you're negociating, so is just as demanding, especially if it's the boss and generally a work-call rather than social.

Of course there are passengers who rabbit on regardless, likely 'cos they don't drive themselves so aren't actually looking out the windows. They should be kept in the back. ;-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Brain engaged elsewhere

The conclusion doesn't surprise me. When talking to a passenger, it is probably just unimportant conversation to pass the time. The passenger is likely to be aware of particular hazards eg approaching roundabouts and can hold back on conversation until the hazard has passed. At worst, the driver can ignore the conversation until it is safe to continue.

When talking on the phone, the driver probably has to listen more intently just to hear (or understand) the caller and it is probably a business call too, making it seem important that the driver responds promptly and professionally to the caller regardless of more important safety priorities. The driver also needs to the details of the call to take action later on, and it all diverts mental resources away from driving.

[Stuart Morrison]

Depends on the passengers to some extent..

..because passengers who are good drivers themselves can judge the road conditions and know when to shut-up and let the driver concentrate, to some extent non-drivers don't (and someone on the end of a mobile line can't) do this.

[Nev]

Look on the bright side

So they could easily reduce accident rates by 50%

(for cars with passengers) by restricting the number

of allowed passengers to one.

Or increase your insurance premium if you

tick the "more than 1 passenger" box.

Great!

[Dale]

If only...

If only we could get the insurance companies to lower the rates on 2 seater sports cars based on this study :)

[Roger Greenwood]

Think Bike

I knew my favourite mode of transport (a motorcycle) would have some advantage over a car. You can't talk to anyone when blasting down the road on a bike at humungous speed - it's too noisy, (and the extra weight of a passenger only slows you down).

[Anonymous Coward]

Another potential variable...

I've wondered for a while if audio quality wasn't part of the issue here. If someone's in the seat next to you, their voice isn't going to snap out for a second or two and come back - and the compression is a little less apparent, too.

I'm wondering if the compression and dropouts in Cell calls, coupled with less-than-stellar audio quality out of the handsets and headsets, results in vastly more concentration required for an identical conversation vs. talking face to face.

A really interesting study would be to give drivers 'hi-fi' phones (you'd probably have to fake it somehow) and see what the results were. I bet you'd find things suddenly got much closer to the situation with real passengers.

[Anonymous Coward]

And what about....

all those drivers who take their eyes of the road to look at the passenger whilst holding a conversation? This is part of holding a conversation with another person. I see this going on all the time. If a study sets out to prove a result it will invariably find what it is looking for, hence lies, damn lies and statistics.

[Josh]

Details

Did they even check to see who was listed at fault? Say I'm talking on my cell, rolling along in rush-hour gridlock, and someone rear-ends me because HE wasn't paying attention. What's that got to do with the phone? I know people who were sitting stopped, on the phone, and still got hit.

Also, what about the people who were not injured?

All this shows me is that if your in the hospital for a nasty wreck, you were more likely to have been talking on the phone at the time, not that it was necessarily caused by talking on the phone.

Finally, when will people learn to multi-task responsibly? I don't know about these folks, but if I'm talking on the phone, or doing just about anything else, my priority is the road, and I will block out/ignore the other party or just drop the phone if needs be. My life is worth more to me than the courtesy of saying "hold on" or "goodbye" before tossing the mobile. Think you look dumb? Imagine telling the other party you have to go because you wrecked your car not-paying attention, and you want to try to stop shitting yourself while the paramedics cut you out of your rolling deathtrap.