They all distract the driver whether they are hand held or not hand held. Texting is the worst issue of all. Eyes off the road. All it takes is a second and the driver has an accident.
There are degrees of safety. To say that hands-free is “no safer than” hand-held is just baloney. That doesn’t mean hands-free is safe, but it does elevate cell phone use to the same level of safety as conversation with passengers, which no one seems to have a problem with.
Women seem to have to look at each other to talk and they do it in the car as well. I don’t let my wife drive us at all anymore. She scares me to death.
We can also blame Billboards for distracting drivers, unpaved pot holes, narrow roads, and Obama for driver inattention.
Driving is the most dangerous thing we do on a daily basis. Doing away with hands free devices will have the consequence of people resorting back to talking on their phones by hand.
The physical presence of a passenger in the vehicle and engaging in conversation poses the same threat to driving attention as a hands-free phone conversation. The key focus of hands-free is the manner of device operation causing distraction. With that focus, then, you must also have a genuine concern for any operation causing driving distraction with other vehicle features or driver habits such as the heating & A/C, radio, navigation systems, or even eating/drinking food.
You are correct in so much as the passenger is completely unaware of what is going on on the road – think little children. But if the passenger is also concerned with road safety they will arrest the conversation when conditions warrant, and in some cases alert the driver. If the radio, AC, and other distractions are taking as much time as texting then yes they are equally problematic.
You left out women putting their make-up on while driving. I see it all the time. They are running late so they do their maskera which is right in their vision line. They think they can multi-task and it is impossible. The worst case scenario is two drivers colliding when both are texting while driving.
Like said above, cell phone conversations (especially hands free) are not the grave danger that they are made out to be. Every cited study I have ever read that finds all the horrific dangers was performed in a controlled manner and based everything on reaction time to a light. This is even worse in the often cited New England Journal of Medicine article that claims talking on the phone is 4x greater risk of collision than just driving. The more research you do into the methods and findings, the more you realize that unless a study is performed in the field, under actual driving conditions, they are not supported by the actual number of collisions and fatalities. The real enemy is not conversations while driving, it is taking the eyes off the road.
They all distract the driver whether they are hand held or not hand held. Texting is the worst issue of all. Eyes off the road. All it takes is a second and the driver has an accident.
There are degrees of safety. To say that hands-free is “no safer than” hand-held is just baloney. That doesn’t mean hands-free is safe, but it does elevate cell phone use to the same level of safety as conversation with passengers, which no one seems to have a problem with.
Women seem to have to look at each other to talk and they do it in the car as well. I don’t let my wife drive us at all anymore. She scares me to death.
Yes, we do have a problem with cell phone use when driving. Speak for yourself and read the below comments.
We can also blame Billboards for distracting drivers, unpaved pot holes, narrow roads, and Obama for driver inattention.
Driving is the most dangerous thing we do on a daily basis. Doing away with hands free devices will have the consequence of people resorting back to talking on their phones by hand.
Texting is the biggest problem we have with these devices. These cell addicts are like Alchoholics. They say they can handle it and they can’t.
The physical presence of a passenger in the vehicle and engaging in conversation poses the same threat to driving attention as a hands-free phone conversation. The key focus of hands-free is the manner of device operation causing distraction. With that focus, then, you must also have a genuine concern for any operation causing driving distraction with other vehicle features or driver habits such as the heating & A/C, radio, navigation systems, or even eating/drinking food.
You are correct in so much as the passenger is completely unaware of what is going on on the road – think little children. But if the passenger is also concerned with road safety they will arrest the conversation when conditions warrant, and in some cases alert the driver. If the radio, AC, and other distractions are taking as much time as texting then yes they are equally problematic.
You left out women putting their make-up on while driving. I see it all the time. They are running late so they do their maskera which is right in their vision line. They think they can multi-task and it is impossible. The worst case scenario is two drivers colliding when both are texting while driving.
Like said above, cell phone conversations (especially hands free) are not the grave danger that they are made out to be. Every cited study I have ever read that finds all the horrific dangers was performed in a controlled manner and based everything on reaction time to a light. This is even worse in the often cited New England Journal of Medicine article that claims talking on the phone is 4x greater risk of collision than just driving. The more research you do into the methods and findings, the more you realize that unless a study is performed in the field, under actual driving conditions, they are not supported by the actual number of collisions and fatalities. The real enemy is not conversations while driving, it is taking the eyes off the road.
Does anyone have a link to those 30 studies? I’d like to get the details. Thank you.
Can anyone point me to the source of these 30 studies? “More than 30 studies show hands-free devices are no safer than handheld.”