Texting and Driving is Insanely Dangerous

Even those of us in the mobile marketing business don’t doubt the perils of texting and driving.  If you had

Dont' text and drive

any doubts about the potential problems from texting and driving simultaneously, a University of Utah texting and driving study should dispel them.

A team of psychologists at the University of Utah determined that drivers that text while driving are six times more likely to be involved in an accident.

And, it isn’t just the fact that texters are taking their eyes off the road.  In fact, many avid texters are able to type a text message without taking their eyes off the road.  The psychologists have concluded that some of the dangerous problems are due to shifting between the two realms of attention.

The worst factor to affect attention of drivers is reading a text message.  The study of 19 to 23-year-olds concluded that braking time was worse when reading an incoming text message.

The study also compared talking on a cell phone versus texting on a cell phone.  While talking decreased reaction time by 9%, texting decreased reaction time by 30%.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Text Messaging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.