Mobile phone use during driving: Effects on speed and effectiveness of driver compensatory behaviour.

This study analysed and modelled the effects of conversation and texting (each with two difficulty levels) on driving performance of Indian drivers in terms of their mean speed and accident avoiding abilities; and further explored the relationship between speed reduction strategy of the drivers and their corresponding accident frequency. 100 drivers of three different age groups (young, mid-age and old-age) participated in the simulator study. Two sudden events of Indian context: unexpected crossing of pedestrians and joining of parked vehicles from road side, were simulated for estimating the accident probabilities. Generalized linear mixed models approach was used for developing linear regression models for mean speed and binary logistic regression models for accident probability. The results of the models showed that the drivers significantly compensated the increased workload by reducing their mean speed by 2.62m/s and 5.29m/s in the presence of conversation and texting tasks respectively. The logistic models for accident probabilities showed that the accident probabilities increased by 3 and 4 times respectively when the drivers were conversing or texting on a phone during driving. Further, the relationship between the speed reduction patterns and their corresponding accident frequencies showed that all the drivers compensated differently; but, among all the drivers, only few drivers, who compensated by reducing the speed by 30% or more, were able to fully offset the increased accident risk associated with the phone use.

[1]  Alexandra Laiou,et al.  Impact of texting on young drivers' behavior and safety on urban and rural roads through a simulation experiment. , 2014, Journal of safety research.

[2]  Maria T Schultheis,et al.  Driver Performance While Texting: Even a Little is Too Much , 2013, Traffic injury prevention.

[3]  Mark E Howard,et al.  A Comparison of the Effect of Mobile Phone Use and Alcohol Consumption on Driving Simulation Performance , 2012, Traffic injury prevention.

[4]  Karel Brookhuis,et al.  The interaction between driving and in-vehicle information systems: comparison of results from laboratory, simulator and real-world studies , 2005 .

[5]  Wahida Banu,et al.  Mobile Phone Accidents - Experience Of India , 2012 .

[6]  Gerald McGwin,et al.  The Prevalence of Distraction Among Passenger Vehicle Drivers: A Roadside Observational Approach , 2015, Traffic injury prevention.

[7]  Pushpa Choudhary,et al.  Analysis of vehicle-based lateral performance measures during distracted driving due to phone use , 2017 .

[8]  Simon Washington,et al.  The impact of mobile phone distraction on the braking behaviour of young drivers : a hazard-based duration model , 2014 .

[9]  Thomas J Triggs,et al.  Driver distraction: the effects of concurrent in-vehicle tasks, road environment complexity and age on driving performance. , 2006, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[10]  Mohamed Abdel-Aty,et al.  Characteristics of rear-end accidents at signalized intersections using multiple logistic regression model. , 2005, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[11]  Michael A. Regan,et al.  Driver distraction: A review of the literature , 2003 .

[12]  C Collet,et al.  Phoning while driving I: a review of epidemiological, psychological, behavioural and physiological studies , 2010, Ergonomics.

[13]  A. S. Al-Ghamdi.  Using logistic regression to estimate the influence of accident factors on accident severity. , 2002, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[14]  Mark J. M. Sullman,et al.  A Roadside Study of Observable Driver Distractions , 2015, Traffic injury prevention.

[15]  Jeff K Caird,et al.  A meta-analysis of the effects of cell phones on driver performance. , 2008, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[16]  David Shinar,et al.  To call or not to call--that is the question (while driving). , 2013, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[17]  Rod Barrett,et al.  Hands-free mobile phone speech while driving degrades coordination and control , 2004 .

[18]  Naveen Eluru,et al.  Disentangling the influence of cell phone usage in the dilemma zone: An econometric approach. , 2016, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[19]  Charles E. McCulloch,et al.  Generalized Linear Mixed Models , 2013 .

[20]  Joel Hughes,et al.  Both Texting and Eating Are Associated With Impaired Simulated Driving Performance , 2012, Traffic injury prevention.

[21]  Albert Kircher,et al.  Using mobile telephones: cognitive workload and attention resource allocation. , 2004, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[22]  Samuel G Charlton,et al.  Driving while conversing: cell phones that distract and passengers who react. , 2009, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[23]  Bryan Reimer,et al.  A study of young adults examining phone dialing while driving using a touchscreen vs. a button style flip-phone , 2014 .

[24]  Michael E Rakauskas,et al.  Effects of naturalistic cell phone conversations on driving performance. , 2004, Journal of safety research.

[25]  John D. Lee,et al.  Defining Driver Distraction , 2009 .

[26]  Samantha Jamson,et al.  Behavioural Adaptation and Road Safety : Theory, Evidence and Action , 2013 .

[27]  Avijit Maji,et al.  Cross-sectional study of road accidents and related law enforcement efficiency for 10 countries: A gap coherence analysis , 2016, Traffic injury prevention.

[28]  Dean P Chiang,et al.  On the highway measures of driver glance behavior with an example automobile navigation system. , 2004, Applied ergonomics.

[29]  Linda Ng Boyle,et al.  Reading, typing, and driving: How interactions with in-vehicle systems degrade driving performance , 2014 .

[30]  M E Gras,et al.  An observational study of driving distractions on urban roads in Spain. , 2015, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[31]  H. Akaike.  Factor analysis and AIC , 1987 .

[32]  Eve Mitsopoulos-Rubens,et al.  The effects of using a portable music player on simulated driving performance and task-sharing strategies. , 2012, Applied ergonomics.

[33]  Gordon Rumschlag,et al.  The effects of texting on driving performance in a driving simulator: the influence of driver age. , 2015, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[34]  Simon Washington,et al.  Decisions and actions of distracted drivers at the onset of yellow lights. , 2016, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[35]  Miranda Cornelissen,et al.  Distraction-induced driving error: an on-road examination of the errors made by distracted and undistracted drivers. , 2013, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[36]  N. Breslow,et al.  Approximate inference in generalized linear mixed models , 1993 .

[37]  Mark Asbridge,et al.  A meta-analysis of the effects of texting on driving. , 2014, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[38]  James R. Sayer,et al.  Distracted Driving Performance Measures , 2015 .

[39]  Pushpa Choudhary,et al.  Modelling driver distraction effects due to mobile phone use on reaction time , 2017 .

[40]  Volker Hargutt,et al.  Frequency and impact of hands-free telephoning while driving - results from naturalistic driving data , 2015 .

[41]  Jan Törnros,et al.  Mobile phone use – effects of conversation on mental workload and driving speed in rural and urban environments , 2006 .

[42]  Sherif Ishak,et al.  Post and During Event Effect of Cell Phone Talking and Texting on Driving Performance—A Driving Simulator Study , 2015, Traffic injury prevention.

[43]  A Baruya,et al.  THE EFFECTS OF DRIVERS' SPEED ON THE FREQUENCY OF ROAD ACCIDENTS , 2000 .

[44]  Yang-Kun Ou,et al.  Effects of Age and the Use of Hands-Free Cellular Phones on Driving Behavior and Task Performance , 2011, Traffic injury prevention.