Text Messaging Increases Risk of Crash

A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study called for a law prohibiting text messaging while driving, concluding that doing both at the same time can increase the risk of a crash by 23 times.

The VTTIs study, which surveyed drivers over six million miles of road, found that manual manipulation of cell phones, such as dialing and text messaging, produced the highest risk for drivers of all vehicle types. Text messaging, however, was deemed the most dangerous of all cell phone-related activity, leading to a 23-fold risk of a crash for drivers of heavy vehicles or trucks, ChannelWeb reports.

According to an analysis by Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute, texting truckers are 23 times as likely as their non-texting counterparts to be involved in a crash or a near miss. Researchers analyzed commercial trucking data from 2004 to 2007 that involved 203 truckers and 3 million miles of driving , Washington Post reports.

"Text messaging on a cell phone was associated with the highest risk of all cell phone related tasks," says the VTTI. "The tasks that draw the driver's eyes away from the forward roadway were those with the highest risk." , RedOrbit reports.

Subscribe to Pravda.Ru Telegram channel, Facebook, RSS!

Author`s name Editorial Team
X