Collegiate Times

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute concluded drivers who text are over 20 times more likely to crash than those driving while not using a phone.

VTTI conducted several large-scale, naturalistic driving studies, using cameras and instrumentation in participants' personal vehicles. Combined, these studies continuously observed drivers for more than 6 million miles of driving.

A new bill to ban texting or sending emails messages while driving was introduced into Congress a day after the release of the results from VTTI's results.

According to the Washington Post, the bill would force states to write laws to prohibit messaging in vehicles or risk losing 25 percent of their annual federal highway money.

Federal lawmakers have used similar strategies to force states to curb speeding and pass seat-belt laws.

The new legislation would also set deadlines for regulators at the U.S. Department of Transportation to devise minimum penalties for states to implement. States would have two years to enact their own laws.

The District and 13 states, including Virginia, already have driver texting bans in place or scheduled to become effective his year. Maryland's ban takes effect Oct. 1.

Text messaging on a cell phone was associated with the highest risk of all cell phone related tasks in the VTTI study.

Through the study, text messaging was shown to have the longest time where eyes are off the road--4.6 seconds over a 6 second interval. This equates to a driver traveling the length of a football field at 55 mph without looking at the roadway.  

The study also showed drivers using headsets are just as likely to be involved in traffic accidents as drivers using a handheld device.

According to VTTI's study for driving light vehicles or cars, dialing a cell phone increases risk of crash or near crash event by 2.8 times compared to non-distracted driving and 5.9 times as high for heavy vehicles or trucks.

For light vehicles or cars, talking or listening on a cell phone raises the risk of a crash or near crash event 1.3 times over non-distracted driving and 1.0 times over for heavy vehicles or trucks.

Reaching for an object such as an electronic device causes drivers to be 1.4 times more likely to crash or nearly crash as non-distracted drivers in light vehicles and 6.7 times more likely for heavy vehicles or trucks.

Drivers of heavy cars or trucks engaging in texting as they drive are at 23.2 times the risk of a crash or near crash event as truckers who do not text message.

VTTI's results show that a real factor for significantly improving safety is keeping eyes on the road. In contrast, "cognitively intense" tasks such as emotional conversations can have a measurable effect in the laboratory, but the actual driving risks are much lower in comparison.

According to VTTI's study, teens are four times more likely go get into a phone-related crash or near crash event than adults in similar situations. Teens tend to engage in cell phone tasks much more frequently, and in much more risky situations than adults.

Based on the finding from research studies, VTTI recommends that drivers should always avoid texting and dialing while on the roadway.

They also recommend that text messaging should be banned in moving vehicles for all drivers and all cell phone use should be banned for newly licensed teen drivers.