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Chelsea Hedquist reporting Let's be honest, most people talk on their cell phones while they're behind the wheel, at least occasionally. Research from the University of Utah suggests that cell phones and driving make a really bad combination.
When you hear the sound of a ringing cell phone, you just want to answer it, even if you're right behind the wheel. And most of us, like Tyler Reid, do answer it.
"Ah, I've never had a problem being distracted. I don't worry about it too much," said Reid
But chances are that Reid and the rest of us are guilty of a DWD - Driving While Distracted - whenever we answer the phone. Frank Drews, psychology professor at the University of Utah, has studied the effect of cell phones on motorists.
"Whenever we had someone converse with someone on a cell phone, we found huge impairments," he said.
Drews and his colleague, David Strayer, used a simulator to test nearly 500 people. They found that people having cell phone conversations had slower reaction times and were even more likely to get in accidents than people driving with the legal alcohol limit of .08.
Luckily, when you crash in the simulation - a common occurrence for cell phone talkers - nothing all that bad happens. Not so in real life. Brooke Condie is a student at the U, originally from Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
"I tend not to talk on my cell phone while I drive, just because there was a kid at my school who was texting on his phone - which I think is a lot worse - and he hit a man outside of our school and the man passed away," said Condie.
Text messaging is the new danger on the roads, according to Drews. "I always thought that conversing on the cell phone was probably the top distraction while driving," he said, "and I have to revise this opinion because I think text messaging is even worse."
Bottom line, says Drews, if you hear that sound and you're on the road, resist the temptation to answer, for your own sake and ofr the sake of your fellow drivers.
