
A Problem of the Brain, Not the Hands: Group Urges Phone Ban for Drivers  - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/health/13well.html?ref=health
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gravitycop
This has been known for a long time. Cellphone distraction has little to do
with holding an object in one's hand. It is the brain-taxing effect of
conversation, and the fact that the other participant is not in the car to
sense danger and therefore know when to stop talking. From the article:

 _it is easy to equate talking to a friend on a cellphone with talking to a
friend in the passenger seat. But a December report in_ The Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Applied _debunked that notion. Utah researchers put
96 drivers in a simulator, instructing them to drive several miles down the
road and pull off at a rest stop. Sometimes the drivers were talking on a
hands-free cell phone, and sometimes they were chatting with a friend in the
next seat.

Nearly every driver with a passenger found the rest stop, in part because the
passenger often acted as an extra set of eyes, alerting the driver to the
approaching exit. But among those talking on the cellphone, half missed the
exit.

“The paradox is that if the friend is sitting next to you, you drive safer,”
Dr. Strayer said. “When you talk to that person on a cellphone, you’re much
more likely to be involved in an accident.”_

