Conversing with mobile phone while driving and its impact on driving behavior

The paper presents the results of a pilot study aiming at investigating the effect of mobile telephone use on the driving performance of 5 amateur and 5 professional drivers. Their driving acuity was tested through a driving simulator. Analysis and interpretation of the results occurred comparing the drivers’ driving performance while talking, reading messages and writing a message on the mobile phone (intervention time) with the drivers’ driving performance engaged in no activity (control time). The variables affected by the mobile phone were “steering”, “lane offset” and “duration of lane offset”. Moreover, the drivers involved in a car crash in the last five years appeared to differ from those who were not involved in a crash in both “lane offset” and “following distance”. The results of this pilot study will form the design of a large experimental study on 50 professional and 50 amateur drivers, which has been scheduled to be carried out in order to produce up-to-date knowledge on the involvement of the human factor in the phenomenon of road traffic crashes. (A)

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