1. Simon Washington Professor and TMR Chair
What we know about the prevalence and consequences of distracted driving
Simon Washington
Professor and TMR Chair
CRICOS No J

3. Talking Points Types of distraction whilst driving
Cognitive distraction, inattention blindness, and multi-tasking
Prevalence of distraction whilst driving
What we have yet to learn
What are promising approaches

4. Types of Distraction Intentional shift of attention from driving
Changing radio station/cd/ipod/etc.
Conversation with passenger
Attending to children
Talking on phone, texting, etc.
Fighting with partner, etc.
Unintentional shift of attention from driving
Roadside event
Fatigue
Driving confusion (signage, etc.)
Advertising, signage, etc.

5. Cognitive Distraction
A distraction that occupies the cognitive processes of the brain
Compare the following:
Recite the alphabet while driving
Name all of the cities you have lived in during your lifetime (while driving)
Estimate the amount of money you spend on groceries in a year (while driving)

6. Multitasking: A Brain Drain
Multitasking for the brain is a myth
Human brains do not perform two tasks at same time
Brain handles tasks sequentially
Brain switches between one task and another
The four lobes of the brain.
Source: National Institutes of Health
(adapted from US Safety Council)

7. Functions of the brain

8. Multitasking: A Brain Drain
(adapted from US Safety Council)
Multitasking: A Brain Drain
Brain engages in a constant process to:
1. Select information brain will attend to
2. Process information
3. Encode to create memory
4. Store information
It must also:
5. Retrieve
6. Execute or act on information
When brain is overloaded these steps are affected

9. Multitasking: A Brain Drain
(adapted from US Safety Council)
Multitasking: A Brain Drain
Encoding Stage
Brain filters information due to overload
Drivers not aware of information filtered out
Information does not get into memory
Drivers miss critical information on potential hazards
Inattention blindness and encoding.
Source: National Safety Council

10. Multitasking: A Brain Drain
(adapted from US Safety Council)
Multitasking: A Brain Drain
Brain juggles tasks, focus and attention
Brain switches between primary and secondary tasks
Inattention blindness
When people do 2 cognitively complex tasks (driving and using a cell phone), causing brain to shift focus
Bottleneck
Different regions of brain must pull from a shared and limited resource for unrelated tasks

11. Inattention Blindness
(adapted from US Safety Council)
Inattention Blindness
A type of cognitive distraction
“looking” but not “seeing”
Hands-free drivers less likely to see:
High and low relevant objects
Visual cues
Exits, red lights and stop signs
Navigational signage
Content of objects

12. Inattention Blindness
(adapted from US Safety Council)
Inattention Blindness
A narrowed scope
Where drivers not using a
hands-free cell phone looked.
Where drivers using a
hands-free cell phone looked.
Source: Transport Canada

13. Driven to Distraction Looked but did not see Looked but did not see
Improper course of action
Improper course of action
Selected appropriate action but executed wrong
Selected appropriate action but executed wrong 13

14. Multitasking: Impairs Performance
(adapted from US Safety Council)
Multitasking: Impairs Performance
Carnegie Mellon University Study (2008)
Took fMRI pictures of brain while drivers listened to sentences and drove simulator
Literally see the results…

15. Driving alone (adapted from US Safety Council)
Driving with sentence listening
L R
L R
Functional magnetic resonance imaging images.
Source: Carnegie Mellon University

16. Multitasking: Impairs Performance
(adapted from US Safety Council)
Multitasking: Impairs Performance
Just listening to sentences on cell phones decreased activity by 37% in the brain’s parietal lobe which perceives movement, integrates sensory information and also has importance for language processing
Listening and language comprehension drew cognitive resources away from driving
Also decreased activity in brain’s occipital lobe which processes visual information

17. Multitasking: Impairs Performance
(adapted from US Safety Council)
Multitasking: Impairs Performance
We can walk and chew gum safely because it is not a cognitively-demanding task
But even cell phone-using pedestrians act unsafely. They are less likely to:
Look for traffic before stepping into street
Look at traffic while crossing street
Notice unusual objects placed along path

18. Multitasking: Impairs Performance
(adapted from US Safety Council)
Multitasking: Impairs Performance
Driving involves a more complex set of tasks than walking:
Visual
Manual
Cognitive
Auditory
A driver’s job is to watch for hazards, but this cannot be done when brain is overloaded

19. The prevalence of distraction

20. Prevalence of distraction
• Driver distraction is identified as one of the main causes of road crashes, estimated to account for 25% of all vehicle crashes. (1)
• Using a mobile phone while driving (especially texting), is highly distracting.
• A person using a hand-held or hands free mobile phone while driving is four times more likely to have a serious crash resulting in hospital attendance. (2)
1. Nemme, H. And White, K.M. (2010).Texting while driving: Psychosocial influences on young people’s texting
intentions and behaviour. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 42(4). pp
2. Nemme, H. And White, K.M. (2010). Texting while driving: Psychosocial influences on young people’s texting
intentions and behaviour. Accident. Analysis and Prevention, 42(4). pp

21. Prevalence of distraction (cntd.)
84% of Australian drivers own a mobile phone, of these (1):
47% reported using their mobile phone while driving
16% of drivers read text messages
8% send text messages
29% of drivers surveyed reported using a hands-free kit, indicating that a large amount of mobile phone use while driving is conducted on hand-held mobiles.
• Young Australians have the highest level of general mobile phone use, with the age groups of and reporting the highest percentages of 94% and 91% respectively (2)
(1) Nemme, H. And White, K.M. (2010).Texting while driving: Psychosocial influences on young people’s texting
intentions and behaviour. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 42(4). pp
(2) (Department of Broadband Communications and Digital Economy, 2008

22. Prevalence of distraction (cntd.)
84% of Australian drivers own a mobile phone, of these (1):
47% reported using their mobile phone while driving
16% of drivers read text messages
8% send text messages
29% of drivers surveyed reported using a hands-free kit, indicating that a large amount of mobile phone use while driving is conducted on hand-held mobiles.
• Young Australians have the highest level of general mobile phone use, with the age groups of and reporting the highest percentages of 94% and 91% respectively (2)
(1) Nemme, H. And White, K.M. (2010).Texting while driving: Psychosocial influences on young people’s texting
intentions and behaviour. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 42(4). pp
(2) (Department of Broadband Communications and Digital Economy, 2008

23. Prevalence of distraction (cntd.)
75% of Australian drivers between years reported that they had sent or received a text while driving compared with 36% of drivers 25+ years (AAMI, 2007).
• Despite legislative bans, between 39% (McEvoy et al., 2006) and 73% (Pennay, 2006) of Australian drivers report using a hand-held mobile phone at some time while driving.3
• A recent CARRS-Q survey of nearly 800 Queenslanders found that 77% of drivers reported using their mobile phone while driving, with approx 40% of drivers using their phone while driving daily.
White, K.M., Walsh, S.P., Hyde, M.K. And Watson, B.C (2010). Mobile phone use while driving: an investigation of the beliefs influencing drivers’ hands-free and hand-held mobile phone use. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 13. pp
McEvoy, S., Stevenson, M., McCartt, A.,Woodward, M., Haworth, C., Palamara, P. and Cercarelli, R. (2005). Role of mobile
phones in motor vehicle crashes resulting in hospital attendance: A case-crossover study. BMJ, 331: pp

24. What the research tells us

25. What we do know……
Hands free devices are not safer than hand held devices
Cognitive distraction (load) is the important aspect in assessing the driving risk
The human brain cannot multi-task (it is not a dual processor)
Conversations, reading, and texting occupy resources in the brain
Many drivers purposely engage in distraction
Current laws (and levels of enforcement) are not discouraging widespread use

26. What we have yet to learn…..
How effective are education campaigns and driver training (seem to be only moderately effective)
What are the best mechanisms for detecting distraction of a driver?
What technologies will have the greatest impact in mitigating distraction?
Do some drivers compensate for increased crash risk when using phones or while being purposely distracted?

27. Promising approaches
In vehicle devices that detect distraction (audible and tactile warnings)
In vehicle devices that limit use of technologies
Roadway-vehicle communication devices (e.g. alert of pedestrian in crosswalk)
Improved enforcement
Larger penalties
Automated enforcement

28. Thanks.....