Road test exposes true dangers of texting
19/02/2010
An SGIO road test has exposed the true dangers of texting while driving.
The road test, which challenged people to drive and text, revealed that drivers spent almost 70 per cent of the trip glancing at their phone – greatly increasing the chance of a crash*.
The road test also revealed that the drivers on average glanced at their phone 38 times for an average length of 1.4 seconds during the trip in order to compose a short text message.
This means that when a driver is travelling at 60 km/h, they are glancing at their phone for 22 metres at a time – which is almost five car lengths.
Head of SGIO Research Centre Robert McDonald said this was a confronting insight into the dangers of sending and receiving text messages while driving.
“People clearly have an appetite for mobile phones and the convenience they offer through immediate communication,” Mr McDonald said.
But drivers need to resist the urge to send or read that message when it comes through; it’s not only dangerous for the driver, but also for the passengers and other drivers on the road.”
Mr McDonald said he wanted to remind WA drivers that it was risky doing anything else while driving, such as eating or drinking, checking your appearance or smoking.
“A text message should never compromise safe driving. If you lose focus while behind the wheel, even if only for a split second, the consequences can be serious,” he said
“If people need to read or send a message urgently then we suggest they pull over and read it in a safe place.”
It is illegal to drive while using a mobile phone in WA. The penalty is a $250 fine and three demerit points**.
* The road test was conducted on a closed circuit private road. Ten drivers (aged 20 to 54) texted an identical message
(“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”) while driving at 60km/h. The drivers faces were filmed with eye movements recorded – a single eye movement is referred to as a ‘glance’.