Only 2.5% can cell phone and drive safely

William Atkins
Tuesday, 30 March 2010 05:31

Science - Health

A University of Utah study found that only a very small percent of people can talk on a cell phone while still driving safely. Think YOU can do it too? It's unlikely at 1 person in 40.

 

 

Drs. Jason Watson and David Strayer are two professors of psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Watson and Strayer studied 200 subjects while they simulated driving on a freeway (without making or receiving any calls on a cell phone).

Then, they checked out out the subjects' ability to drive while talking on a cell phone, a conversation that involved memorizing words and solving mathematics problems.

The two psychologists measured their without and with cell-phone/driving performance in four categories: (1) following distance,(2) memory,(3) math execution, and (4) braking reaction time.

They found out that, yes, some people can talk on cell phones and drive safely at the same time.

However the percentage of people that can do such multitasking is very, very small'”only one person out of 40. These people are described as having 'extraordinary ability to multitask.' [UH press release]

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