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**Wgnhqhlg** · 09-07-2011, 07:20 AM

More people are killed by people driving while texting than driving drunk. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9102931

The article is misleading at best...

In the study, drunk drivers were four times more likely to crash than a sober driver; texting drivers were six times more likely to crash than someone who was not texting. After looking at the ACTUAL study linked in the bottom of the article and several different key word searches...I cannot find anything in the study that says anything about drunk driving.

What makes this research a first is that the Utah experiments tracked young drivers and actual crashes, not close calls. SIMULATED crashes from simulated driving not ACTUAL crashes. There is a difference in simulated driving and actual driving...

From the study itself:
Method: Forty participants engaged in both a single task (driving) and a dual task (driving and text messaging) in a high-fidelity driving simulator. 40 people is hardly an accurate or legitimate sample and representation of over 300 million Americans.

Even the study itself says it this:

However, it seems too early to draw conclusions based on this trend because of the relative small sample size. Don't get me wrong...texting takes your eyes off the road, which reduces your reaction time, but so do many other forms of distractions.

09-07-2011, 07:20 AM	#40
Wgnhqhlg Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 413 Senior Member	More people are killed by people driving while texting than driving drunk. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9102931 The article is misleading at best... In the study, drunk drivers were four times more likely to crash than a sober driver; texting drivers were six times more likely to crash than someone who was not texting. After looking at the ACTUAL study linked in the bottom of the article and several different key word searches...I cannot find anything in the study that says anything about drunk driving. What makes this research a first is that the Utah experiments tracked young drivers and actual crashes, not close calls. SIMULATED crashes from simulated driving not ACTUAL crashes. There is a difference in simulated driving and actual driving... From the study itself: Method: Forty participants engaged in both a single task (driving) and a dual task (driving and text messaging) in a high-fidelity driving simulator. 40 people is hardly an accurate or legitimate sample and representation of over 300 million Americans. Even the study itself says it this: However, it seems too early to draw conclusions based on this trend because of the relative small sample size. Don't get me wrong...texting takes your eyes off the road, which reduces your reaction time, but so do many other forms of distractions.
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