Cell Phones and Driving: What is the Risk? Dr. Paul Atchley Visual Information Processing Lab Department of Psychology University of Kansas

2 Today’s talk Is there a problem with distracted driving? How big is the potential problem in the long term? Why can’t we multitask while driving? What should we do to mitigate risk? 2

Motivating Problem

Driving while talking on a cell phone increases accident risk 4.3 times (Redelmeier & Tibshirani, 1997) 4.1 times (McEvoy, et al., 2005) 2 to 6 times (Atchley & Dressel, 2004) More than drunk driving (4 times - Strayer et al., 2006) Texting is a 2300% increase (VTTI, 2009)

A brief review

DA Redelmeier & RJ Tibshirani Association between cellular-telephone calls and motor vehicle collisions. New England Journal of Medicine, 1997, Vol. 336(7):453-8 Studied phone records of 699 drivers involved in non-injury accidents over 14 months. Analysis of phone records showed that talking on a phone during the period before an accident increased risk 4.3 times. Hand-held and hands free units produced equivalent risk. Research - Field work

SP McEvoy, MR Stevenson, AT McCartt, M Woodward. Role of mobile phones in motor vehicle crashes resulting in hospital attendance: a case-crossover study. British Medical Journal, 2005 Jul 12 Studied phone records of 456 drivers involved in injury accidents over 27 months. Analysis of phone records showed that talking on a phone during the period before an accident increased risk 4.1 times. Hand-held and hands free units produced equivalent risk. Research - Field work

These designs compared drivers to themselves to assign odds ratios (i.e. what is the chance a driver has an accident when they are on the phone or not). All other distractions are equal in both cases, so the increase in risk is irrespective of any other distraction. The increase in risk is the same as the increase while driving with a blood alcohol level at the legal limit. Case Crossover Designs

P Atchley & J Dressel. Conversation Limits the Functional Field of View. Human Factors. 2004, Vol. 46 (4): Driver distraction special issue. The attentional assessment indicated conversation reduced attention, leading to an increase in accident risk of 2 to 6 fold. This increase is likely most problematic at intersections. Current research using the same method shows even higher risk with emotional conversations. Research - Lab Research

Strayer, D. L., Drews, F. A., and Crouch, D. L. (2006). A comparison of the cell phone driver and the drunk driver. Human Factors, Cell phones: drove slightly slower, were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes, displayed 24 percent more variation in following distance as their attention switched between driving and conversing, were 19 percent slower to resume normal speed after braking and were more likely to crash. Research - Lab Research

How big is the problem, potentially?

Wogalter & Mayhorn (2005) –81% of their participants (U.S.) reported talking on a cellular phone while driving Nelson, Atchley & Little (2010) –Almost every KU student that owns a car and a phone, talks and drives 60-80% of minutes are used while driving Scope of the Problem: Cell phones

Atchley & Atwood, 2009 Texting and driving

Adoption is more pervasive, earlier, and use is heavier Future trends

Geser, 2006 “(O)ut of 1415 respondents, not less than 1356 (= 95.8) percent were currently in possession of a personal mobile phone, and among the 59 non-owners, 28 had the habit of borrowing sometimes a set from a sibling or friend.” More pervasive

Geser, 2006 Earlier adoption

Geser, 2006 Heavier Use

“ While these aren’t the craziest fines in the world, the fact that the government is so strictly regulating what we do in our cars frustrates me. I’m not going to pretend like this is the worst thing to happen to me, but I’m bothered that now not only do I need to interrupt my phone call when I see an officer, I also need to make sure it doesn’t look like I’m punching the buttons.” RESTRICTION ON TEXTING WHILE DRIVING TARGETS THE WRONG DISTRACTIONS Scott Pearring, January 9, 2009

Perception of risk is a weak moderator of use of cell phones while driving. Perceived importance of making a call strongly predicts frequency of use and choice to initiate calls. Nelson, Atchley & Little (2010) Accident Analysis & Prevention Knowing risk does not lower risk

Why can’t we multitask?

Neisser & Becklen, 1975

What we think we see...

Attention is a spotlight on the world

Limits to attention Pringle, Kramer, Irwin & Atchley (2001); Hoffman & Atchley (2001)

Limits to attention

The general question ??

Does conversation limit attention? Atchley & Dressel, 2004

Conversation and attention

No verbal task

Conversation and attention Concurrent verbal task

Conversation and attention

Conversation produces an attentional bottleneck

Simons and Levine, 1998

Summary

All research points toward decreased safety for talking or texting while driving Cellular use by employees while driving can lead to an increase in accident risk equivalent to driving drunk The problem is in the brain, not the hand –Hand’s free devices are not safe either We are spending billions to improve driving safety but death rates have remained constant Safety and legal considerations

Numerous large lawsuits have been won by persons injured while using phones for work purposes while driving or injured by employees Bustos v. Leiva et al ($16.1 million) Beers Skanska ($4.75 million) The State of Hawaii ($2.5 million) A Merrill Lynch broker conducting business on a cell phone killed a motorcyclist. Merrill Lynch was successfully sued. International Paper was successfully sued for $5 million after its employee struck a car, requiring amputation of the struck driver’s arm Safety and legal considerations

Some big employers ban cellular phone use UPS ExxonMobil National Transportation Safety Board The U.S. government (texting only per Presidential order) And Sedgwick County! When AMEC banned cell phone use while driving, 83% of employees also reduced or quit using the devices while driving on their own time Safety and legal considerations

Cellular phone conversations reduce attention resulting in missed information at intersections and slower reaction times to events. Hands-free devices to not negate this effect. Texting is far worse. In-car conversations are not the same, as driver and passenger reduce conversation as traffic increases. Employers may be at risk for employees phoning and driving ConclusionConclusion

The UFOV ® task

Subtest 1 “Processing speed”

Subtest 2 “Divided attention”

Subtest 3 “Selective attention”