Using smartphones for social networking while driving is more dangerous than drink driving or being high on cannabis behind the wheel, according to research published by IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists). Despite this, eight per cent of drivers admit to using smartphones for email and social networking while driving – equivalent to 3.5 million license holders in the UK alone.
The IAM is the United Kingdom’s largest independent road safety charity, dedicated to improving standards and safety in driving, motorcycling and cycling. The commercial division of the IAM operates through its occupational driver training company IAM Drive & Survive. The IAM has more than 200 local volunteer groups and over 100,000 members in the UK and Ireland. It is best known for the advanced driving test and the advanced driving, motorcycling and cycling courses. Its policy and research division offers advice and expertise on road safety.
Smartphones and distractions are a real risk to drivers
Twenty-four per cent of 17-24 year old drivers – a group already at higher risk of being in a crash – admit to using smartphones for email and social networking while driving.
For their research, the IAM and TRL (Transport Research Laboratory) used DigiCar – TRL’s car driving simulator – to examine the effects of young drivers using smartphones to access facebook. In every test of driving performance, young people who were using facebook while driving were badly affected.
When sending and receiving facebook messages:
- reaction times slowed by around 38% and participants often missed key events;
- participants were unable to maintain a central lane position resulting in an increased number of unintentional lane departures; and
- were unable to respond as quickly to the car in front gradually changing speed.
The dangers of checking social networks while driving is serious and the IAM research illustrates that it can be more dangerous than driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol (DUI).
When comparing these new results to previous studies the level of impairment on driving is greater than the effects of drinking, cannabis and texting.
- Using a smartphone for social networking slows reaction times by 37.6 per cent;
- texting slows reaction times by 37.4 per cent;
- hands-free mobile phone conversation slows reaction times by 26.5 per cent;
- cannabis slows reaction times by 21 per cent;
- alcohol (above UK driving limit but below 100mg per 100ml of blood) slows reaction time by between six and 15 per cent; and
- alcohol at the legal limit slows reaction times by 12.5 per cent.
The IAM is calling for government action to highlight the dangers of using smartphones behind the wheel. Phone manufacturers and social network providers also have a key role to play in spreading the message. Attitudes to seatbelts and drink driving have changed dramatically over the last thirty years, and, with the right information, halting smartphone use could become a similar success story.
IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “This research shows how incredibly dangerous using smartphones while driving is, yet unbelievably it is a relatively common practice. If you’re taking your hand off the wheel to use the phone, reading the phone display and thinking about your messages, then you’re simply not concentrating on driving. It’s antisocial networking and it’s more dangerous than drink driving and it must become just as socially unacceptable.
“Young people have grown up with smartphones and using them is part of everyday life. But more work needs to be done by the government and social network providers to show young people that they are risking their lives and the lives of others if they use their smartphones while driving.”
TRL senior researcher Nick Reed said: “Our research clearly demonstrates that driver behaviour was significantly and dramatically impaired when a smartphone was being used for social networking. Drivers spent more time looking at their phone than the road ahead when trying to send messages, rendering the driver blind to emerging hazards and the developing traffic situation.
“Even when hazards were detected, the driver’s ability to respond was slowed. The combination of observed impairments to driving will cause a substantial increase in the risk of a collision that may affect not only the driver but also their passengers and other road users. Smartphones are incredibly useful and convenient tools when used appropriately and responsibly. Their use for social networking when driving is neither.”
Other campaigners for road safety have drawn attention to the unsocial nature of social networks; what is more unsocial than putting your own life and the lives of those around you in risk? Road safety tweeters; Don’t Tweet and Drive raise awareness of the dangers of tweeting while driving;
Communications Officer at YOURS; Mr Manpreet Darroch who has been a long standing advocate of ‘turning off technology while on the road’ said, “We are living in a social experiment where being connected via social networks is something so new that we are yet to evaluate its long-term impacts on society. Having access to social networks at the palm of our hands has in one way created a constant ‘switched in’ world but there are clearly some real dangers to people being distracted on the road. We as young people are already vulnerable road users and these distractions are certainly not helping our road safety cause”.
The report from IAM is available to download in the attachments. You can read more about this story and find the full report here.