Interferences of using cell phones whilst driving and its legislation

Abstract

Cell phone use has become one of the more common driver distractions. Investigation of the effects of engaging cell phone operations and conversations whilst driving in the relation to the degradation of driving performances and the likelihood of crash accident is an area in which an extensive study has been done to date. In the past few decades, this usage has been found to increase the risk and certain accident characteristics in fatal collisions. Indeed, the increase of the risk can be ascribed to the distraction of the cell phone tasks, the inattention to the driving task when the cell phone tasks are being performed, and the dual-task interference with consequent the deterioration of driving performance. Empirical research revealed that using a cell phone while in motion significantly intervene driver behaviors. Simultaneously presenting a driving and cell phone tasks to drivers limited their cognitive and physical capacity when the drivers concurrently perform both tasks. Another imperative concern regarding the use of the in-vehicle technology while driving is how this usage affects the ability of drivers in the judgment of road parameters and their mental workload. Using a cell phone while driving results in a detrimental effect on driving performance and impairs decision-making ability of the drivers. Driver impairment can attribute most vehicle-related accidents. Poorer judgment was made while the drivers simultaneously performed the mental task via an in-vehicle phone and driving. Redelmeier and Tibshirani [1] described that drivers' ability to detect deceleration of the lead car was impaired when a cell phone was being used while driving. Drivers failed to detect stop signal of a simulated traffic light when a conversation was being performed [2]. The failure of detecting stop signal, i.e. red light, could result in injurious or fatal collisions. McKnight and McKnight [3] investigated the impact of the usage on driver's mental workload and driving performance. The results indicated the increase of the subjective mental workload and the decrease of driving performance as engaging the intense conversation. Enacting law to ban on using cell phones when behind the wheel may be an effective way to obtain a higher degree of the compliance. The legislation was first enacted in the state of New York in November 2001. Researchers had measured the effectiveness of the legislation by observing drivers before and after the law took effect in New York. The results revealed that the law enactment resulted in a reduction of hand held phone use by drivers by 52%. This article intends to advocate the law enactment to ban the cell phone use behind the wheel. Further investigation of public acceptance and perceived effectiveness of the legislation will be performed.