The Driving Danger Dyad

A cell phone conversation cuts through a driver's concentration and performance on the road in ways that a chat with a front-seat passenger does not approach, researchers here reported.

Drivers relating an event on a hands-free cell phone were four times more likely to miss their exit compared with drivers who told a similar story to a passenger (P<0.05), Frank A. Drews, Ph.D., of the University of Utah, and colleagues reported in the December issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

Those who chatted on their cell phones were also significantly more likely to drift in their lane (P<0.05) and fail to keep a greater distance between their car and the one in front of them (P<0.05).

The reason for this conclusion is clear:  The passenger is able to better meter and negotiate the safety dyad between road and driver while the cellphone caller has no idea of the circumstance of the road.  In the cellphone conversation, the driver is forced to live in the negotiated, neutral, ether of the cellular communication rather than dealing with the immediate danger of the road facing driver and passenger.