Cellphone as risky as alcohol for drivers, study finds
Using a cellphone behind the wheel causes some of the same kinds of errors that can occur under the influence of alcohol, say scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Nor are cellphones the only danger in the car. DVD players, onboard navigation systems and iPods can all have the same effect.
The scientists say in a new study that brain imaging shows that listening to anything reduces by 37 per cent the amount of brain activity associated with driving, causing motorists to potentially steer out of their lane.
Even so, the study’s lead author doesn’t support a ban on cellphones — hand-held or hands-free — in vehicles.
Marcel Just, a former Montrealer and the current director of the Centre for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon, said circumstances dictate when and where it’s wise to use cellphones and other devices.
“If you know you’re out on the highway, there’s not much traffic, the weather’s fine, I think you can afford to (use a cellphone). Then that risk is manageable,” Just said. “In Toronto traffic, I think it’s probably a bad idea.”
Just’s study used brain imaging to document the effects of listening on driving. His research showed the drop in brain activity was sufficient to cause drivers to weave out of their lane.
Twenty-nine volunteers used a driving simulator while inside an MRI brain scanner for the study. They steered a car along a virtual winding road while measurements of their brain activity were taken every second.
Decreases in brain activity from listening while driving occurred in areas that process spatial sense, navigation and visual information. The subjects hit a simulated guard rail and deviated from the middle of the lane, according to the research, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Brain Research.
The study comes as Quebec and Nova Scotia are about to become the second and third Canadian provinces to ban the use of handheld cellphones while driving. In Newfoundland earlier this year, where handheld cellphones have been banned since 2002, Premier Danny Williams was fined and apologized after getting caught on his phone while behind the wheel.
The British Columbia government is also considering a cellphone ban for younger drivers. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, on the other hand, said earlier this year he’s not certain a ban in Ontario is necessary.
Just suggests, instead of a ban, creating cellphone-free zones around schools and other places where driving and dialing might create risk.
“The public should realize using a cellphone lowers their driving ability, just as taking an alcoholic drink does,” he said.
Just said drivers need to learn to deal with the new barrage of technology in cars, ranging from books-on-tape to iPods. He noted most of the devices, such as navigation systems, are only 10 to 20 years old.
“But our brain isn’t 10 or 20 years old,” the scientist said. “It’s a few million years old and doesn’t have the capability of dealing with so many things at the same time.”
Just said in his opinion, there is no difference between handheld and hands-free cellphones while driving — the two are equally risky.
He called driving in traffic a peak intellectual demand, and one of the things that drew him to research driving and listening since one of the missions of the Centre for Cognitive Brain Imaging is to study the upper limits of human brain capacity.
“It’s obviously societally important,” he said. “When you start taking risks when you’re driving, you’re not just taking a chance on yourself. It’s the people in front and around you, your fellow citizens and their children.
“Take the cellphone in your hands and you’re putting them at risk.”
By Charles Mandel, Canwest News Service
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