It was big, if old, news on Tuesday, as news organizations trumpeted that hands-free devices and voice-command systems such as Siri, are just as distracting to drivers, or more so, than using a cellphone. Study after study has already proven this news, or variations on the theme, but as vehicles continue to be sold with such phone systems as standard equipment, apparently new research is required to debunk each, individual system, such as Bluetooth and Apple’s Siri-equipped iPhone.
We know the truth, but can’t handle it. So “CBS News” puts it gently: “Distracted driving may not be entirely your fault.” The hands-free devices and/or complex voice commands cause drivers to become frustrated, and hence, distracted, the new study found. Which is why it’s not entirely your fault, as CBS says. They are right, in a sense: Despite evidence that any and all gadgets distract a driver, some states, including ours, passed laws that make driving while talking on a cell phone illegal, but allow the hands-free devices.
Everyone claims to be smarter than the government, but not in this case. They believe that hands-free devices are OK, despite evidence to the contrary, creating a false confidence in people who refuse to read such studies themselves. A large percentage of people insist they can “multi-task” while driving. But they cannot. At least not well. The task of driving, done correctly, already requires a person to pay attention to multiple things while operating a motor vehicle. A maddening majority of people who phone and drive, however, think others who phone and drive pose a risk, but they, themselves, do not.
(This summer, it was gratifying to see a woman pulled over for talking on her phone while turning left on busy Broadway in Everett … which happened because she was completely unaware of the motorcycle cop behind her. Oops. That’s “distracted.”)
Every year a University of Utah researcher comes out with another study about the danger of phones and driving. Here’s what psychology professor and study leader David Strayer says this time: “The primary task should be driving. Things that take your attention away make you a poor driver. Even though your car may be configured to support social media, texting and phone calls, it doesn’t mean it is safe to do so.”
We’ll repeat his new yet redundant research every year, in the vain hope that we can skip ahead to the part where states ban the use of all phones/gadgets while driving, which is what the National Safety Council called for years and years ago.
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