New Study Illustrates Variable Levels of Distraction Risk while Driving

A new study recently out from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety suggests that, when it comes to driving, there are distractions, and then there are distractions. Various devices we've come to enjoy, and even depend on in our cars every day, may actually pose a bigger threat to safe driving than we expect, and one of the biggest potential risks may be a voice-activated device in the car's dashboard that may never be touched.

Essentially, the new findings assign levels of risk coordinated with the familiar green, yellow and red traffic signals, denoting mild, moderate or high danger. Mild danger is associated with things like listening to the radio or an audio book. Moderate danger steps in when talking to another person on either a hands-free or a hand-held phone. High danger comes in for voice-activated texting or e-mail.

While this may sound unusual, the rationale behind it is that it's not what the hands are doing that makes an activity dangerous, it's what the brain is doing. Passive activities like listening to something or someone are low impact, while creating and interacting with others take higher amounts of brainpower to successfully accomplish.

The research that went into the reports was conducted by University of Utah cognitive distraction expert David Strayer, who along with his research team measured levels of brain activity, eye movement and a variety of other metrics to consider what effects various activities have on a driver's ability to not only process but react to what's going on on the road ahead. Using an electroencephalograph-configured skull cap and a Detection-Response-Task device to record reaction times, as well as cameras to track eye and head movement, the researchers could determine which tasks were requiring the most brain activity and taking drivers' eyes off the road most often.

The results led AAA's CEO, Peter Kissinger, to release a statement which read, in part, “These findings reinforce previous research that hands-free is not risk-free. Increased mental workload and cognitive distractions can lead to a type of tunnel vision or inattention blindness where motorists don't see potential hazards right in front of them.”

Given that the number of  hands-free devices is set to increase—some estimates suggest a fully five-fold increase before 2018 arrives—the AAA Foundation is eager to see action taken in response. Some of the AAA Foundation's recommendations include shutting down such functions while the vehicle is in motion, and limiting voice activation systems to only recognize functions required for driving, like activating windshield wipers, engaging defrosters, or other such controls. This report actually dovetails into an earlier report from the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy, which came to much the same conclusion as the AAA Foundation.

Of course, it's worth noting that what may be a “high danger” activity for one driver may be a “mild danger” activity for another. Thus, heavy-handed methods like requiring the shutdown of all devices may be more an overreaction than anything. Even Kissinger's statement acknowledges that the distraction may not be universal, saying that distractions “can lead to a type of tunnel vision”—not that distractions will or must lead to tunnel vision. Better education may prove a more useful result than coercive methods.

Still, with a growing body of evidence suggesting that hands-free may be riskier than some believe, hanging up and driving may be a much more reasonable response than ever.