DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION

A. Distracted driving may not get the publicity given to alcohol, drugs and speed, but it is thought to play a role in one third of fatal and serious injury crashes on roads. And while there is a strong community opposition to drink drivers or people who speed, our attitude towards making phone calls or reading text messages is much more relaxed. Surveys for the Office of Road Safety have found that while 96 per cent of people believe reading and sending text messages is distracting. 54 per cent admit reading texts and 35 per cent have sent them while driving. About 85 per cent of people think mobile phone use is distracting but 46 per cent said they take calls on the road and 36 per cent concede making them.

Then there are all the other distractions, from resolving arguments between the kids to trying to navigate with a map book on your lap. Acting Sergeant Chris Greea from the Police Traffic Enforcement Group, said distracted driving is extremely common— even in plain sight of the police.

*You see all sorts of things: people reading newspapers, putting on makeup, having their breakfast, reading books and maps.’ he said.

‘Map books are very common but you see people with all sorts of documents. They have busy lives so they might have their information out fora doctor's appointment, not just at traffic lights but driving along.

‘If there is a marked police car. lots of people will change their behaviour, but with some of this behaviour, they are so caught up they don’t notice the police car right next to them.’

B. Acting Sgt Green said drivers can feel falsely confident about the road conditions, particularly on familiar routes, but an accident can occur in seconds.

‘On the roads the environment changes every day. You could drive down that street a hundred times but on the 101st time, there could be road works or a pedestrian that steps out—anything can happen.' he said.

Despite recent changes to laws regarding the use of mobile phones—with a fine and three demerit points for people using them illegally—Acting Sgt Green said drivers still flout the law.

Police are handing out an average of 225 infringement notices a week, down on past years’ figures, but still very high.

‘We are out there enforcing it but people are still using the phones on a daily basis and as they become more sophisticated, they are reading emails, sending messages, watching videos.' he said. ‘If you are on the phone, you are not concentrating on what is going on around you.'

C. Identifying the exact role of distraction in crashes is difficult but the RAC's Glen Walker said people making or defending claims are quick to point out when the other driver is at fault. 'When you speak to someone to settle a claim they will say "the other driver was too busy putting on lipstick and rear-ended me.'" said Mr W’alker. Manager of the Technical Claims Unit. 'Getting distracted while changing a CD is a very common one. So is reaching into the glove box. There was one guy who drove into a house because he was getting a bit amorous with the woman in the car.' Mr Walker said some of the stories of distracted driving can be amusing but in his previous work as a police officer he had seen fatal accidents caused by a momentary lapse of attention. 'It only takes just a little bit of distraction and things get very dangerous very fast.'

D. Professor Mark Stevenson is a leading road safety researcher and director of the Accident Research Centre and School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Mon ash University. He said the risks of mobile phones in cars have been well established, with major studies showing any use by a driver raises the risk of an accident.

He and other researchers have examined the phone records of hundreds of drivers attending hospital after a crash, finding the risk of crashing is four times greater if the driver is using their mobile phone—regardless of whether it is handheld or hands-free. While that may sound surprising, there are crucial differences between a conversation with a passenger and one on a mobile, he said.

‘There have been laboratory studies that have shown that if you have a driver holding a conversation with a passenger, the passenger will moderate the conversation because they are scanning the scene in front of the vehicle and they can see the situation changing for the driver.' Professor Stevenson said

‘If you are at a complex intersection with a lot of traffic, lots of things around, what happens is that the passenger will moderate the conversation and not get into a heated debate right at that moment. That doesn't happen on the phone.' The pressure of maintaining a conversation in tricky road conditions reduces the driver's ability to react.

'It is the cognitive processing that’s delayed—and that means reaction time and the manoeuvres required all slow down as a result of the phone conversation,' he said

Because of growing evidence that even hands-free phones can be dangerous, several Australian states have banned mobile phones in cars for Platers and the Draft National Road Safety Strategy released this year even suggested that there was evidence to support a total ban on all mobile phone use while driving.

'We know from our research that it still increases the risk of crashing almost fourfold.' Professor Stevenson said.

‘It's just not going far enough.’

E. If mobile phone use has been problematic for driver distraction, the next wave of in-car technology could be worse. In the US, the issue has received considerable public debate in the wake of high-profile cases, including a state police officer who crashed and killed two sisters after travelling at 200km/h while talking on the mobile and emailing from his laptop In January, the US Transportation Secretary met with American carmakers, asking them to limit the use of distracting technology in vehicles. At the same time, however, struggling manufacturers hope hat bundling technology into cars might boost sales, particularly among young drivers.

Car manufacturer Ford is updating a system that will allow text messages and Facebook updates to be read to the driver, while other manufacturers are looking for ways to give drivers updates about nearby amenities and expand the dashboard display with USB ports, bigger maps and wi-fi access.

The technology is developing so fast that our understanding of how much it increases our risk of crashing is not keeping up.' Professor Stevenson said.

'Are these things truly there to benefit us or are they just increasing the distraction factor for drivers?'

While technology is helping cause the problems. Professor Stevenson believed it could also be used to fight distraction by switching off all phones and other devices—whether drivers want it to or not.

‘There is potential down the track with in-vehicle technologies that you could block any transmission while the car is in motion.’ he said.

That would be a passive intervention— you don’t need any behavioural change to ensure that happens.'

RAC Head of Member Advocacy Matt Brown said members are already concerned by the level of mobile phone use they see on the roads and believes more care is needed before increasing the load.

‘We want cars to be comfortable and user-friendly, but the safety of the driver and other road users has to be the top priority.' he said.

‘You wouldn't go to a factory floor and clutter it up with devices that would take the worker's mind off the machinery. What happens in a car is no different."

‘In fact the law requires employers to remove any potential hazards.’

F. An open driving track with just a few orange cones to navigate doesn’t sound like much of a challenge—but the mother and son who navigated the course for the RAC found it much tougher once they were asked to do something else at the same time.

Kim, 52, said she was used to using a mobile phone in her own car through a Bluetooth system and found concentrating on buttons and the road at the same time difficult. ‘I don't even dial my phone normally, it’s voice activated and I just tell it to call the person and it does.’ she said, it is really difficult to try to dial and talk and manage the phone and drive through the obstacles at the same time.’ Kim found talking hands-free on the mobile relatively easy but struggled with texting and said programming the car’s GPS system was almost impossible.

Kim’s sot Matt, 21, was a bit more confident that he would be able to text while driving but negotiating the orange-cone chicanes and then a tight lane, designed to represent driving over a bridge, proved too difficult. ‘I clipped the bridge and if it was real I guess I would have been getting wet.’ he said. ‘Texting was definitely harder than I expected and programming the GPS was very difficult.’

RAC driver trainer Dave Meinen, who conducted the assessment, said the tests proved that even minor distractions could compromise a motorist’s ability to drive. 'We tested the drivers against a range of distractions and every single one of them had an impact on core driving competencies, including driver attention, accuracy, lane control, speed control, hazard perception and reaction time.’

Mr Meinen said, ‘At the end of the day good drivers just drive; they don't get distracted.’