Cognitive Factors In Distracted Driving

Nearly 6,000 people are killed connecting to the outcome of cell phone use while driving, according to Edmunds.com (7). Texting and talking on the phone throughout the time that a person is driving can have deadly consequences, but people still don’t seem to want to give up risking their life. There are many issues that can happen while on the road related to the usage of cell phones. It is important to stop people from looking at their phones while driving, because it is extremely distracting and not safe. Even hands free devices are not as safe as they seem to be. There have to be consequences for people using their cell phones while driving in order to improve the people’s safety. According to Edmunds.com, cell phones are known as distractions everywhere in the world and have created several concerns to several countries (9).

“Distracted driving refers to any nondriving activity that takes motorists ' attention away from the safe operation of their vehicles” (Leone). Every time a driver gets in a vehicle and decides to use a cell phone to have a conversation, either talking or texting, they put themselves and others lives in danger. The convenience a cell phone and the capabilities they offer have made them a substantial distraction and a cause of significant source of vehicle accidents and fatalities. There are three different types of distractions: visual, manual and cognitive. Cell phone use is the most dangerous distraction because it involves all three different types of distraction and plays a part in the increasing issue of distracted driving. Even

Distracted driving is the leading cause of car accidents in America, followed by speeding, then drunk driving. A study performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTAS) found that 80% of car crashes were a direct result of distracted driving. There are three types of distractions for drivers: visual, cognitive, and manual. Cell phone usage whilst driving meets all three criteria for a distracted driver. When a person is using a phone they will take their eyes away from the road to look at the device (visual), they will think about the content of what they are looking at and take their mind off of the road (cognitive), and they will also take their hands off of the wheel to use the device (manual). There are many other reasons that can be attributed to distracted driving, like applying make-up or loud passengers in the car, but cell phone usage is becoming a rapidly growing concern, especially with younger drivers. The NHTAS identified that drivers under the age of 20 make up the highest proportion of distracted drivers that were involved in fatal crashes.

Laws should be created and enforced for people who are texting while driving because it increases death rates, accidents, and more money will be paid to repair the car. Distracted drivers could be driving while eating, talking to passengers, or using the GPS. However, texting while driving is considered to be the most hazardous act. When people use their phones while driving they are putting their life and the people around them at risk. According to statistics compiled by the Department of Transportation in 2018, 3,477 people died and another 391,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes caused by drivers who were distracted because they were texting or using cell phones.

In 2009 1.56 trillion text messages were sent and although we can’t find out how many of those were typed or received in a car, we would say most of them were. The NSC says texting is involved in at least 100,000 crashes per year. Twenty one percent of car crashes, 1.2 million, involve talking on the phone even with hands free devices. Distracted driving in 2009 led to half a million injured and 5,500 killed, says the Department of Transportation. These facts led to the conclusion that the brain can not perform two tasks at once. It switches quickly between the two, the switch happens so fast that you believe you are multitasking and paying attention but you really are just missing chunks of important information.

Distracted driving in America is not a trivial issue in today's society. On average, eight people are killed and one thousand one hundred sixty one people are injured due to accidents involving distracted drivers, particularly due to texting. Distracted driving is a huge issue in our society. The risks are great and lead to unfathomable results. Distracted driving has also taken such a big toll on our Nation, that laws have been put in place in hopes of preventing distracted driving.

The use of pulling a phone out while driving , particularly for texting and during phone to ear conversations , cause visual , manual and cognitive distraction (Thompson 4 ). When drivers pull out their phones they are taking more than 50% of their attention away from the roads, for example some

Distracted driving, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, include things like talking on your cell phone, texting, emailing and even eating (“Distracted Driving.”). Being distracted for even a few seconds can be deadly. Every day over 9 people are killed and more than 1,000 injured in accidents associated with distracted drivers, according to the CDC (“Distracted Driving.”). This heartbreaking statistic could be reduced if States would do more to prevent distracted driving. Florida recently took action and banned texting and driving. This law, however, is not enough to reduce the tragedies caused by distracted driving.

“A distracted driver may fail to see up to 50% of the available information in the driving environment. You may look but not actually “see” what is happening. Focus of the driver is not on the road or traffic and it becomes difficult to handle phone and vehicle at one time. Cell phones during driving also reduce the mental capacity of drivers as they fail to concentrate on minor or major activities happening around them. Cell phones distract drivers' attention resulting in comparatively slow response to traffic signals and other related traffic events. Studies have shown the fact that breaking reaction time is also slower while talking on a cell phone during driving. The perception, vision, general awareness, and concentration of the driver are impacted while communicating on a cell phone during driving. Especially during bad weather or driving on slippery roads, drivers engaging in conversation pay less attention to these areas increasing risks of fatal accidents.

Studies conducted from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety shows that using a cell phone while driving significantly impairs a driver’s reaction time and triples the risk of being involved in a crash or near-crash, and text messaging increases crash risk by a multiple of 8 for all ages (NHTSA, 2009). Situational awareness is significantly decreased while engaging in distracted driving, and in turn inattention blindness is increased drastically creating a potentially deadly situation on the roads. A driver who is multitasking has less brain function available and thus literally fails to see or pay attention to things that are squarely in the field of vision (Texting and Driving, 2010). On the other hand there are those that may be able to multitask successfully though the challenge is

According to the National Safety Council, motor vehicle crashes are the top two leading causes of injury death for everyone from the age of one to over age sixty-five and the number one cause of work-related deaths. On average approximately 38,000 people are killed in automobile accidents every year. This does not account for serious injuries that permanently disable. A major cause of crashes and fatalities is driver distraction. Driver distraction is now a leading cause of accidents ranking as high as alcohol and speed related accidents. Twenty-one percent of driver-distracted accidents are related to talking on cell phones and three percent account for texting. Since 1996, cell phone use has grown from 14 percent to 102.4 percent in 2011 in the United States (NSC, 2012).

The effect of using a hand-held cellular phone and listening to radio broadcast on driving performance will be explored. There are many careless drivers on the road who are mostly talking on the hand-held cell phone. It is predicted that using a hand-held phone would take the driver’s attention away and would cause driving slowly. Since many accident reports show that cell phone use while driving is dangerous it is questionable if listening to radio will also be detrimental on driving task. Many people turn on the radio for entertainment or to fight from drowsiness especially if there is no other passenger in the vehicle. It is predicted that having a conversation with using a hand-held cell phone while driving will decrease the driving performance, while listening to a radio broadcast will not have significant effect. Important implications for the results for driving performance and for future research will be discussed.

Texting while driving has developed into a growing danger amongst many drivers. Driving requires full attention at all times; moreover, texting impairs the drivers’ abilities, causing his or her reaction time to decrease dramatically. When his or her full attention is on the phone rather than on the road, the driver is unable to witness the traffic; therefore, causing a collision due to lack of focus. When both hands are on the phone texting, the driver easily loses control of the vehicle because of his or her inability to concentrate on the road. Improper driving is an unnecessary risk to

In the 21st century, technological advancements have had a profound impact on almost every aspect of people’s lives, especially in regard to the use of mobile phones. A sophisticated understanding of just how the use of cellular devices interfere with our cognitive process is an enduring interest due to its pertinence in modern society. According to research conducted by Redelmeier and Tibshirani, (1997) drivers who talk on their mobile phone are four times more likely to be involved in an accident than those who do not engage in cellular conversation. Statistics have also shown that an estimated 330,000 injuries caused by driving and 2600 fatalities of the annual car accidents can be attributed to the use of cell phones (Cohen & Graham, 2003). In this essay, the impact that mobile phones have on cognitive processes crucial to satisfactory driving capabilities will be explored, and it will be essentially argued that the interference that mobile phones have on the cognitive process necessary for driving effectively is detrimental. The empirical evidence from two studies will be used to support my thesis in which the driving ability of participants are tested in conjunction with mobile phone use. The first is Strayer and Drews’ (2006) study which compares the cell phone using driver to the drunk driver, essentially confirming a direct correlation between the two and thus supporting my thesis. The second study conducted by Kristen E. Beede and Steven J. Kass (2005) examined the

Cell phones impair a driver’s attention (Strayer et al., 2003). Strayer et al., (2003) a driving stimulator to measure forty participants braking response times. Of the forty participants, 83% reported to using a cellphone while driving (Strayer et al., 2003). In this experiment a dual-task of having the participant talk to a confederate on a topic of interest (Strayer et al., 2003). The four dependent measures used in this experiment were brake-onset time, brake-offset time, following distance and minimum speed (Strayer et al., 2003). The results in a MANOVA showed that the dual-task of talking on a cell phone had a slower time than the single-task baseline (Strayer et al., 2003). In addition, as traffic density increased the impairment of using a hands-free phone also increased (Strayer et al., 2003). Strayer et al., (2003) also found that when drivers are talking on the phone they are more likely to have rear-ended collisions, miss traffic signals and respond slower. When drivers are on the phone having a conversation, they are not focusing on the road and therefore have a slower reaction time compared to average drivers (Strayer et al., 2003). Strayer et al., (2003) measured braking response time, vehicle speed, following distance and accidents increased while braking response time slowed down (Strayer et al., 2003).