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Chatting on a hands-free phone is more distracting to drivers than a conversation with a passenger, researchers have found. Drivers were more likely to drift out of their lane and miss a turning if they were using a hands-free set, than if they were talking to someone sat in the car or not speaking at all, a study reveals.
The finding builds on recent work that suggests younger people's reactions become as slow as those of pensioners if they are talking on a hands-free set while driving.
David Strayer, at the University of Utah, used a driving simulator to see how conversations affected people's driving.
He asked 41 men and women to take part in 10-minute journeys during which they either chatted to a passenger, sat in silence with them, or drove alone but took a call from a person on a hands-free set.
Drivers had to negotiate two-lane roads with traffic moving in both directions, a multi-lane motorway, and were asked to take a specific exit to finish the test, according to the study.
"When there is a passenger in the car, almost everyone takes the exit, but half the people talking on the cell phone fail to," said Strayer. "A driver conversing with a passenger is not as impaired as a driver talking on a cell phone. You see bigger lane deviations for someone talking on a cell phone compared with a driver talking to a passenger."
The finding was significant enough for the researchers to urge people not to call drivers who would need to use a hands-free.
