Driving with hands-free mobile phones could lead to reckless driving – Study

A study conducted by an American university suggests that using a hands-free mobile phone kit while driving could render the driver impaired.

According to a research by the University of Utah, about 97.5% of drivers were found to be  impaired while using their hands-free set. The research carried out using 200 drivers in a simulator found that the brake reaction times of drivers were 20% slower. Also, drivers struggled to keep pace with traffic when hooked to the hands-free. Of the 200 participants, only 2.5% did not exhibit any drop in performance.

According to David Strayer, one of the authors of the study, there was no “safety advantage” for road crash risk while driving using a hands-free kit. “ Performed using  a driving simulator the real road crash risk is exactly the same”, he added. According to a report in The Irish Times, the Department of Transport has said that the driving impairments faced due to driving using hands-free kits could lead to prosecutions.

Compare Mobile Phone Prices

BlackBerry Torch 9800

• 1000 Minutes
• Unlimited Texts
• 500 MB
• 24 Months

• £30.00/Month
• 

Sony Ericsson Xperia arc

• 600 Minutes
• 500 MB
• Unlimited Texts
• 24 Months

• £30.00/Month
• 

Samsung Galaxy S II

• 900 Minutes
• Unlimited Texts
• 500 MB

• £31.00/Month
• 

Comments