Auto Moto Center

Our cell phones help us remain connected with each other, and they can actually make traveling safer because there's a fast method to call for help in an emergency. Misused, nevertheless, cellphones can prove to be far more risky than useful on the road. Just chatting on a cell phone can be distracting, but texting, which has been accepted as a well-liked activity by teenagers and adults everywhere, looks to be much more deadly.

A driver distracted by reading or typing a text, even with just one hand, has their attention split between the road and the activity of texting, with virtually no speed awareness at all. This has caused countless accidents over the last one or two years, including many deaths. Car and Driver Magazine even did a test in a carefully controlled environment to test reaction times of drivers reading or sending texts, and compared those with the same drivers' times after becoming drunk. In this experiment, the reaction times were far worse when using the cell phone than after drinking, by a gaping margin.

Why Text Messages Can Be So Perilous

The result of this experiment showed clearly that the drivers were focused on the cellular phones and usually did not look up for 1 or 2 seconds to even check their speed or their surroundings. This caused their vehicles to go between 90 and over 300 feet farther than they did when they wanted to stop and weren't using cell phones to text. The driver who regularly held the cellphone and texted with both hands also usually tended to drift out of his lane, creating other dangers.

Getting Drivers to Look Up

A speed display sign will do no good if the drivers don't see it, so a driver who simply does not look up can't benefit from any sort of sign. But a driver looking down at a phone rather than his speed or the street may spot a lit sign, particularly a flashing, lit sign. He may see it out of the corner of his eye far faster than he might see a static sign.

Except for stressing to teens and adults alike not to use their cell phones while driving, there is no mystical formula to get drivers to look up from their phones and pay attention to the road. Radar traffic signs, nonetheless, could be able to help by drawing a driver's attention.