Sir please step out of the car!

[DoctorP]

People who talk on mobile phones while driving are as impaired as drunk drivers, a new study indicates.

Furthermore the results related to hands-free phones as well as handheld phones.

I saw this story on the television news today and found it quite interesting. The study showed that people on cell phones typically follow too close, hit their breaks more often, and had more collisions than people who were legally drunk. This all took place in a 360 degree simulator in moderate traffic conditions.

In Japan, hands free devices have been required for some time now, but after just returning from the US I was surprised to see how many states still do not require such devices.

The rest of the story can be found here

 

[Reiku]

Did you see the test that compared sleep deprivation and drunk driving?

One group had to stay up all night before the test, the other had to drink a whole lot just before the test--then they put them on a closed course with cones and various obsticals and filmed how they did. The drunk group did fairly well, but the sleep-deprived group was horrible--the highlight was when one of the sleep deprived drivers hit a cardbord cutout of a little girl and broke down sobbing uncontrolably--seems as though she thought she really hit a kid.

I wonder how cellphones stack up to sleep deprivation, in terms of driving impairment?

 

[DoctorP]

I wonder how cellphones stack up to sleep deprivation, in terms of driving impairment?

Sleep deprivation is much more dangerous in my view. Even drunk, you can still be awake and see what is happening, which means that you can react. If you fall asleep at the wheel though, there is nothing you can do. Although, many DD accidents are due to the person who has been drinking, passing out behind the wheel.

 

[Reiku]

That's why I'm talking about sleep deprivation, not falling asleep while driving--obviously driving while unconscious would be more imparing than just about anything else.

I'm something of an insomniac, so I'm pretty familliar with the effects of sleep deprivation and what it can do to you--in fact, I had to pull an all-nighter at the office thursday and had quite a time getting home on friday, due to how messed up I was.

Honestly, I've never found it to be that different from being drunk. I think maybe the reason the test showed sleep deprivation to be worse than drinking was either:

a) They couldn't properly judge the equivalent ratio of missed sleep to blood alchohol level, so the drinking group got less drunk than the insomia group got sleep-deprived.

b) The subjects were all more used to dealing with the effects of alcohol than missed sleep, so the drunk drivers had the advantage of experiance over the tired ones.

I think it's probably the second one, because I've found that I can usually operate much better than most people while on a sleep deficet, just because I've done it so many times--and likewise I have a freind who is much more capable than me after we've had a few "Captin Rob's"

(Captiain Morgan's Spiced Rum and Baileys Irish Creme, and yes, the drink is named after my freind)

 

[Mike Cash]

I would much rather take my chances with a drunk driver than a drowsy driver.

 

[Reiku]

Me too, but that's because drowsy is a far cry from sleep deprived.

There's a big differance between being sleepy and having your entire central nevous system twitching like a spider with a pin stuck through it because you haven't slept in 24 hours or more.

 

[Mike Cash]

And neither the drowsy nor the sleep deprived have any more business behind the wheel than do the inebriated, no matter how "used to it" they may be.

 

[Reiku]

Quite true. Seems to me that any condition that impairs your perceptions or motor skills should disqualify you from whizzing around at the helm of a ton and a half of steel.

 

[ghettocities]

What seems to be the officer, problem?




Josh