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Will Cell Phone Convergence Prove to be Further Distraction for Drivers?
[April 20, 2006]

Will Cell Phone Convergence Prove to be Further Distraction for Drivers?


Executive Editor
 

As operators, service providers, network equipment vendors and the rest of the telecommunications industry await the arrival of fixed mobile convergence to provide cell phone users with the so-called “third screen,” you should probably first consider the latest research released on Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.



 

In a landmark research report conducted in conjunction with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), the NHTSA found that nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved distraction to the motorist such as a cell phone.


 

Ironically, while many individual states have banned cell phones unless drivers use a hands-free device such as headsets, the study found that likelihood of a crash due to dialing is nearly identical to a crash due to talking or listening.

 

Dialing is more dangerous but occurs less often than talking or listening, the study concluded.

 

The study’s release comes at a time when communications, entertainment and technology giants struggle to compete with each other in a race to roll out new services like mobile TV to the consumer. And in the business market, cell phones have already transformed into handheld calendars or email devices with a passionate following of fanatical users. As such, analysts believe the onslaught of next-generation technologies could very well bring about a new era of regulation.

 

"The wireless phones will be used to manage more and more of our lives," explained Jeff Kagan, telecom analyst. "If we are going to use these phones for all they can offer, we have to be smart about it. Either that or there will have to be new laws passed making it illegal to drive and talk at the same time."

 

Among the other findings of the study were:

  • reaching for a moving object increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by 9 times
  • looking at an external object by 3.7 times
  • reading by 3 times
  • applying makeup by 3 times
  • dialing a hand-held device (typically a cell phone) by almost 3 times
  • and talking or listening on a hand-held device by 1.3 times

The NHTSA study tracked the behavior of the drivers of 100 vehicles equipped with video and sensor devices for more than one year.  During that time, the vehicles were driven nearly 2,000,000 miles, yielding 42,300 hours of data.  The 241 drivers of the vehicles were involved in 82 crashes, 761 near crashes, and 8,295 critical incidents.

 

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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.


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