the first study of drivers texting inside their vehicles shows that the risk sharply exceeds previous estimates based on laboratory research — and far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions.
the new study, which entailed outfitting the cabs of long-haul trucks with video cameras over 18 months, found that when the drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting.
the virginia tech transportation institute, which compiled the research and plans to release its findings on tuesday, also measured the time drivers took their eyes from the road to send or receive texts.
in the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices — enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field.
even though trucks take longer to stop and are less maneuverable than cars, the findings generally applied to all drivers, who tend to exhibit the same behaviors as the more than 100 truckers studied, the researchers said. truckers, they said, do not appear to text more or less than typical car drivers, but they said the study did not compare use patterns that way.
compared with other sources of driver distraction, “texting is in its own universe of risk,” said rich hanowski, who oversaw the study at the institute.
mr. hanowski said the texting analysis was financed by $300,000 from the federal motor carrier safety administration, which has the mission of improving safety in trucks and buses. more broadly, the research yielding the results represent a significant logistical undertaking.
the overall cost was $6 million to equip the trucks with video cameras and track them for three million miles as they hauled furniture, frozen foods and other goods across the country.
the final analysis of the data is undergoing peer review before formal publication.
tom dingus, director of the virginia tech institute, one of the world’s largest vehicle safety research organizations, said the study’s message was clear.
“you should never do this,” he said of texting while driving. “it should be illegal.”
thirty-six states do not ban texting while driving; 14 do, including alaska, california, louisiana and new jersey. new york legislators have sent a bill to gov. david a. paterson. but legislators in some states have rejected such rules, and elected officials say they need more data to determine whether to ban the activity.
one difficulty in measuring crashes caused by texting drivers — and by drivers talking on phones — is that many police agencies do not collect this data or have not compiled long-term studies. texting also is a relatively new phenomenon.
the issue has drawn attention after several recent highly publicized crashes caused by texting drivers, including an episode in may involving a trolley car driver in boston who crashed while texting his girlfriend.
over all, texting has soared. in december, phone users in the united states sent 110 billion messages, a tenfold increase in just three years, according to the cellular phone industry’s trade group, ctia.
the results of the virginia tech study are buttressed by new laboratory research from the university of utah. in a study over the last 18 months, college students using a sophisticated driving simulator showed an eight times greater crash risk when texting than when not texting.
that study, which is undergoing peer review and has been submitted for publication in the journal for human factors, also found that drivers took their eyes off the road for around five seconds when texting.
david strayer, a professor who co-wrote the university of utah report, offered two explanations for the simulator’s showing lower risks than the virginia study. trucks are tougher to maneuver and stop, he noted, and the college students in his study might be somewhat better at multitasking.
but the differences in the studies are not the point, mr. strayer said. “you’re off the charts in both cases,” he added. “it’s crazy to be doing it.”
at virginia tech, researchers said they focused on texting among truckers simply because the trucking study was relatively new and thus better reflected the explosive growth of texting. but another new study from the organization is focusing on texting among so-called light-vehicle drivers, specifically teenagers.
preliminary results from that study show risk levels for texters roughly comparable to those of the truck drivers. the formal results of the light-vehicle study should be available later this year. by comparison, several field and laboratory studies show that drivers talking on cellphones are four times more likely to cause a crash than other drivers. and a previous virginia institute study videotaping car drivers found that they were three times more likely to crash or come close to a crash when dialing a phone and 1.3 times more likely when talking on it.
researchers focused on distracted driving disagree about whether to place greater value on the results of such a so-called naturalistic study or laboratory studies, which allow the scientists to recreate conditions and measure individual drivers against themselves.
but, in the case of texting, laboratory and real-world researchers say the results are significant — from both scientific methodologies, texting represents a much greater risk to drivers than other distractions.
a new poll shows that many drivers know the risks of texting while driving — and do it anyway. the aaa foundation for traffic safety plans on tuesday to publish polling data that show that 87 percent of people consider drivers texting or e-mailing to pose a “very serious” safety threat (roughly equal to the 90 percent who consider drunken drivers a threat).
of the 2,501 drivers surveyed this spring, 95 percent said that texting was unacceptable behavior. yet 21 percent of drivers said they had recently texted or e-mailed while driving.
about half of drivers 16 to 24 said they had texted while driving, compared with 22 percent of drivers 35 to 44.
“it’s convenient,” said robert smith, 22, a recent college graduate in windham, me. he says he regularly texts and drives even though he recognizes that it is a serious risk. he would rather text, he said, than take time on a phone call.
“i put the phone on top of the steering wheel and text with both thumbs,” he said, adding that he often has exchanges of 10 messages or more. sometimes, “i’ll look up and realize there’s a car sitting there and swerve around it.”
mr. smith, who was not part of the aaa survey, said he was surprised by the findings in the new research about texting.
“i’m pretty sure that someday it’s going to come back to bite me,” he said of his behavior.
第一项对于司机在开车过程中发短信的实验室研究结果表明其危害性要远比预测的严重的多，并且要远远超过其他分散司机精力的影响因素所带来的危害。
通过在长途卡车的驾驶室内安装摄像机来对其进行18个月的监控，该项新的研究发现了当司机边驾驶边发短信息的时候，发生车祸的危险要比不发信息时高出了23倍。
弗吉尼亚交通运输研究所收集了大量的该类研究结果并打算在周二发布他们的研究成果。除此之外，他们还记录了司机的眼睛从路况上转移到接发信息的频率。
在碰撞之前或接近碰撞之前的一刹那，司机通常花去了五秒钟盯着手机看，而这段时间如果以在高速公路行驶的速度来计算的话，其通过的距离比一个足球场的长边还要长。
研究人员表示，即使卡车要比其它类型的车要长而且难于掌控，该项研究结果还是将结论推及到所有驾驶者身上。因为通过对100多名卡车司机的研究，他们所表现出来的行为是一样的。卡车司机并不比其它车型的驾驶者少发或者多发信息，但是该研究并没有对手机的使用方式进行类似的比较。
负责监控整个研究过程的rich hanowski表示，与其它类型的影响司机注意力的因素相比，“发信息具有其独到的危害性”。
mr. hanowski表示此项研究是由联邦运输安全管理局所提供的$300,000 支持的。联邦运输安全管理局所负责的一项任务就是改善客车和公共汽车的安全状况。从更为深远的角度去讲，该项研究所产生的结果是对物流安全性的重要保证。
将装载着家具，冷冻食物和其它物品的卡车上配备摄像机并对其在全国各地运输的过程进行记录的整体花费为600万美元。
最后的结果分析在等待同行评议之后才能发表。
弗吉尼亚科技研究所，世界上最大的车辆安全研究机构之一，主任tom dingus说研究结果所要传达的信息是清楚的。
”你永远不能开车发短信，而且这种行为应该判定为违法。“
36个州并没有禁止开车发短信；14个州，包括阿拉斯加，加利福尼亚，路易斯安那和新泽西等都已经明令禁止这种行为。纽约州立法者已经上交了州长david a. paterson一份相关议案。但是在一些州里，立法者们并不同意禁止开车发信息，被选举出来的领导们说他们需要更多的信息来决定是否禁止该行为。
区别车祸是由于开车发信息引起的还是开车打电话引起的是一个不小的难题，因为许多警局没有收集该方面的信息或者没有进行过长期的研究。而且发信息也是最近才兴起的新玩意儿。
开车发信息的危害性是由于最近几起广泛报道的由于司机发信息而出车祸而引起人们注意的，这包括五月份波士顿的一个有轨电车司机在工作过程中给他女朋友发信息酿成了惨祸。
总的来说，发信息的总量一直在攀升。 根据ctia，美国蜂窝电信工业协会的数据统计，在12月份，美国手机用户总共发送了1100亿的短信息，这比三年前增长了10倍。
弗吉尼亚理工的研究结果也被来自犹他大学的实验室研究结果所支持。在一项长达18个月的研究中，大学生们利用一个精确的行驶模拟装置证明了当司机驾驶并同时发信息的时候发生车祸的可能性增长了8倍。
此项研究结果，已经被送交进行同行评议并将于人性因素杂志进行发表，同时发现了司机在发短信的时候眼睛至少有5秒钟没有注意路面情况。
共同参与编写犹他大学这项研究报告的david strayer教授，对于行驶模拟装置所预测的风险性比弗吉尼亚研究小组的低的结果进行了两点解释。卡车比其它类型的车更难于掌控和停车，以及参与实验的大学生可能善于多任务处理。
但是，实验之间的差别并不是关键，strayer先生说。“如果你更倾向于比较两个实验的差异而不是他们试图阐明的事实，那你就错失要点了。”
在弗吉尼亚理工，研究人员解释说他们之所以将精力集中于卡车司机，只是因为货车运输的研究还比较新颖，更能很好的反应短信发送量的爆发式增长。但是，另外该机构的一项研究将轻型机动车驾驶人员纳入了视野，尤其是青少年们。
该研究的初步结果表明该人群由于开车发信息的危险指数并不比卡车司机们的低。该研究的正式结果将于今年的晚些时候公布。相比较而言，一些实验研究结果表明司机在开车时打电话要比正常行驶的情况下发生车祸的可能性多了4倍。以前的一个弗吉尼亚研究所通过对汽车司机进行录像发现，司机在拨打电话的时候发生或者接近发生车祸的可能性要多了3倍，而通话的时候则多了1.3倍。
那些研究分心驾驶的研究者们并不同意在所谓的自然研究或者实验室研究上大做文章，而这些研究能够允许科学家们去重新创造条件并且使得单个测试者违背了自己一贯的做法。
但是，在发信息方面，实验室和现实研究者们认为结果是非常重要的。从两方面的科学方法上边，发短信都要比其它因素更能分散司机的注意力，因此也危害最大。
一项新的民意测验显示，许多司机都知道开车发短信的危害但是他们还是乐此不疲。美国汽车协会交通安全基金计划于周二发表新的测验数据。该数据显示87%的人们司机在驾驶过程中发短信或者发邮件都给安全带来非常严重的隐患（大约有90%的人认为酒后驾车具有安全隐患）
在今年春季2.501个参与调查的司机中，95%认为开车发短信是一种不能接受的行为。然而21%的司机又承认最近在开车的时候发过短信或者邮件。
在被调查的16至24岁的青年司机中有一半的人承认开车发短信而在35至44的人群当中只有22%的人说自己在开车的过程中发过短信息。
"开车发短信非常方便。"22岁的robert smith刚从windham毕业。他说尽管意识到这么做有危险，但他还是经常开车的时候发短信。他宁可发短信也不愿意打电话。
“我将电话放在方向盘的上方并用双手去打字，”他说，并且经常会有10余条短信来来回回。有些时候，“我抬起脑袋发现前面有辆车，我急忙打方向盘避开了它。”
smith先生并不是美国汽车协会的被调查者，他表示对于关于开车发短信的新的调查结果表示惊讶。
“我非常确信有一天我会得到报应的-别人开车发短信的时候很可能会撞到我，”他是这样评论自己的行为的。