You shouldn’t drive if you’ve had a few drinks.
You shouldn’t make a few calls if you’re driving.
Doing either is equally dangerous, according to University of Utah researchers.
Their study observed 40 volunteers who each used a driving simulator four times: once after having drunk enough vodka and orange juice to register a 0.08 blood alcohol level, once while sober but talking on a regular cellphone, another time sober and talking on a hands-free phone, and once both sober and phoneless.
Test equipment recorded braking and other maneuvers and reactions as drivers followed an electronic pace car on a screen. Some participants “crashed” their virtual cars while chatting, but nobody crashed after drinking.
“We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cellphone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit,” said Frank Drews, assistant psychology professor at Utah.
Some critics have questioned the study, noting its small size and arguing that overall accident statistics haven’t risen as much in recent years as cellphone use.
Average drivers may scoff as well, thinking that it violates common sense to equate a quick call home from the car with driving while tipsy.
The report was the first peer-reviewed study to include cellphone use and drinking, and, quibbling aside, its conclusions just make good sense.
Other studies have shown that talking on the phone while driving is distracting. Drew said that up to 50 percent of the visual clues spotted by alert drivers are missed by talking motorists.
“They don’t see that they are veering off the lane and doing other weird stuff,” he said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attributes 25 percent of recorded accidents to “distracted driving” of all kinds.
The issue has prompted predictable calls to outlaw cellphone use in cars, and equally predictable warnings about freedom, responsibility and big government.
We won’t jump into that debate now, but we offer some simple advice: When you get behind the wheel, put the phone away.
