Distracted driving takes front seat in NPR's 'Car Talk'

SALT LAKE CITY – Ramona Stirling has had her car rear-ended three times in four years. All three times, Stirling was stopped in traffic at the time of the accident, and all three times, the collision occurred when the other driver was using a cell phone.

"Thousands of dollars of damage were caused and tremendous inconvenience," said 59-year-old Stirling, who says she hasn't caused an accident since she was 16.

Along with texting and phone calls, eating, drinking, reading, shaving, disciplining children and other habits are becoming more commonly associated with drive time. Tom Magliozzi, and his brother, Ray — the "Car Talk" guys on National Public Radio — with the help of University of Utah researcher David Strayer, have set up an online quiz for drivers to determine their multi-tasking abilities. It can be found at www.cartalk.com/distraction. It rates drivers based on their behavior behind the wheel.

"When you're trying to merge onto the highway between a moving tractor trailer and a FedEx truck, your brain is performing a complex mathematical calculation," Tom Magliozzi, "Car Talk" co-host said. "I think most people know that they can't do that and have an intelligent conversation at the same time. And we have proof of this, because every one of us has had a near-miss with a jerk holding a cell phone up to his ear."

Strayer is known for his pioneering research on the dangers of driving while distracted, including research that demonstrated hands-free cell phone use is just as distracting as using a hand-held phone, due to a phenomenon known as "inattention blindness."

Since 2000, the U.'s Applied Cognition Lab has been studying driver distraction to better understand how and why people can become overloaded while multitasking. Its mission is to make roads safer through research on the impact of advanced vehicle technology on drivers, providing essential information for the development of public policies aimed at saving lives by reducing driver distraction.

Studies have shown using a cell phone while driving significantly reduces reaction time. Strayer also said that motorists using cell phones while driving are just as impaired as people who are just above the blood-alcohol limit for drunken driving. In a recent study, researchers found that text-messaging while driving sharply increases the risk of a collision.

Distracted drivers cause around 1.6 million accidents each year, making up at least 28 percent of all occurring traffic accidents, a number the National Safety Council works diligently to suppress.