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Two new studies indicate that talking on the phone while driving does not translate into more accidents in the real world.
Studies from Carnegie Mellon University and the London School of Economics (full text of study) as well as a separate analysis of different data by The University of Colorado and RAND Corporation both indicate that real world data indicates that talking is not the problem.
A third study, by Virginia Tech published in the New England Journal of Medicine, used in-car and exterior video cameras on 100 cars, and also found that talking on the phone wasn't a risk factor, but dialling was. (Uniquely, this study could also evaluate "near accidents" because they had video.)
In the CMU/LSE study, the researchers explain (quoted in the Daily Mail):
The California Office of Traffic Safety welcomed the UC/Rand study about as warmly as someone receiving a speeding ticket, claiming the study was too narrow. Others point out that the risk is not in the actual talking, but rather in the reaching for, answering, and dialling of mobile phones."Using a cellphone while driving may be distracting, but it does not lead to higher crash risk in the setting we examined".
"While our findings may strike many as counter-intuitive, our results are precise enough to statistically call into question the effects typically found in the academic literature. Our study differs from most prior work in that it leverages a naturally occurring experiment in a real-world context."
The Virginia study did evaluate texting, neither of the other projects did. And even these results are surprising. The odds ratio of accidents attributable to different driver distractions is listed in this table. Dialling is a far greater risk than is texting. But risks are dramatically worse for novice drivers. Experienced driver handle distraction far better. For both groups, actually talking on the phone had an odds ratio of less than one (safer than not talking), perhaps because talking prevents other risky behaviour.
Taken together these results suggest Hands-Free + Voice Dialling might actually make us all safer without having to ban phone use while driving.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 20 2014, @07:34PM
> I understood the article to mean that dialing was more dangerous than simply talking on the phone.
No, that is not it at all. It isn't even an article, it is just a table of odds.
Odds for inexperienced drivers:
texting: 3.87
dialing: 8.32
It was interesting that the number of accidents for experienced drivers who were texting was too small to be statistically meaningful. Does that mean experienced drivers are smart enough not to text while driving?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Adamsjas on Monday July 21 2014, @01:59AM
Yes, it means exactly that, experienced drivers simply were not in accidents (or near accidents) while texting, and they explained it in the study write-up, that experienced drivers OF THAT TIME just didn't text while driving.
As for your table of odds statement, you are close, but not exactly on.
They are tables of odds-ratios, which has its own link explaining what that means.
1) Some accidents happen when the driver is doing none of those activities. There are odds of that.
2) Then other accidents happen when the driver is doing one of those activities. There are odds for that as well.
The odds ratio is the ratio of #1 and #3, such that if the ratio was 1, the accident happened just as often whether the subject was tuning the radio or not tuning the radio.
For inexperienced drivers tuning the radio was in progress when an accident happened more often than an accident happened otherwise.
For experienced drivers tuning the radio was seldom being done when an accident happened even though accidents still happened.
One of the things these odds ration can measure is LEARNING, and in many cases experienced drivers simply learn over time that there are some times you just don't mess with the radio, because accidents or (more likely) near misses have taught them not to do that stuff.
The interesting thing is that experience evidently teaches drivers SO WELL that when they DO tune the radio, they are so careful in doing it, or choosing when to do it, that their chance of having an accident when tuning is less than their chance of getting in an accident when they are just driving along (JDA).
I guess that pretty well defines "experience".
(Score: 1) by Adamsjas on Monday July 21 2014, @02:05AM
Gurrr. I meant he odds ratio is the ratio of #1 and #2.
You probably figured that out.
Frojack linked to the Virginia study, which was fairly recently published but some of the actual research that went into this study dates from much earlier, some portions back in 2004.
Its an interesting insight into learning and and experience.