Description

David Strayer, PhD, of the University of Utah explains how cell phone use compares with drunk driving.

Transcript

Male Speaker: First is that, the reaction time as soon as talking on a cell phone are significantly slowed, so that if you look at how long it takes somebody to hit the brakes is something critical. It requires some kind of evasive action or some kind of breaking response. It takes people significantly longer to hit the brakes. We know that in terms of maintaining vehicle control that people are less able to maintain their vehicle in the middle of their lane where they belong when they are talking on a cell phone. And that this level of impairment is in some cases everybody is pronounced is what you could see with someone who is driving at a point away or at a alcohol level. That is the cell phone driver and the drunk driver, at least in terms of crash risk have the same level of a crash risk.