Driving While Talking On Phone Risky, Both Hands-On & Hands-Free

Talking while driving, even with hands-free technology, has the same threat level as using the phone itself while driving. According to the National Safety and Security, the leading cause of deaths in the United States is vehicular accident, which are mostly a result of cellphone use while driving. Due to high risk dangers by such act, authorities discourage drivers from using phones while behind the steering wheel; same goes with hands-free devices.

A hands free phone has an equal distraction as using the device on hand. Two experiments were done by researchers where participants complied with a hazard-detection task using a video-based platform. Participants may be distracted or not as they listen or decide if the sentences announced are true or false. The result shows that all distracted participants respond slower to hazards, failing to recognize errors even if their eyes were focused, Hindustan Times reported. The second experiment includes visual imagery and comparisons between distracted and undistracted participants.

Talking while driving could prompt a person to imagine the facial expression of the person on the other line. Dr Graham Hole, a Psychology lecturer in the University of Sussex stated that the driver processes the visual imagery more than what he sees on the road. 20 males and 40 females were the participant in the said experiment. As a conclusion, those answers that require visual thinking made the drivers respond slower, Sport Act reported.

Talking while driving persuades drivers to use their imagination more than paying close attention to the road ahead. Two tasks are working at the same time, imagery evoking aspect and driving performance. It is also said that chatting with passengers in a same car poses less risk than those who are talking on the phone as the person on the other line is oblivious with the road hazards that the driver sees.