Cell Phones and Teen Drivers
By Eric Peters

Few eagle-eyed, lightning-reflexed 20-year-olds think they've got much in common with 70-year-olds. But according to a new study, they do -- at least when they're talking on a cell phone while trying to drive a car.

"Instant aging" is how researcher and psychology professor David Strayer describes the effects of yakking on a cell phone on a teenager's ability to notice and respond effectively to changes in the driving environment -- such as the brake lights of the car ahead suddenly coming on. "If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, his reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver," Strayer says. The test subjects -- all in the 18 to 25 age group -- needed 18 percent more time to recognize and respond to brake lights coming on and took longer to re-adjust their speed after slowing down. It didn't matter whether the cell phone was hand-held or hands-free. The factor affecting reaction times was divided attention -- a driver trying to focus on the road and his conversation at the same time.

And the problem doesn't go away after you turn 30.
Another study done by Strayer and a colleague, assistant professor of psychology Frank Drews, found that drivers distracted by cell phones are as effectively impaired in their ability to deal with the ever-changing driving environment as boozed-up drivers with blood alcohol levels as high as .08 BAC -- the legal threshold for drunk driving in most states. Other studies of the effect of cell phones on concentration and driving have reached the same conclusion: "Multi-tasking" behind the wheel isn't a good idea; it negatively affects your ability to safely drive a car and makes you more likely to have an accident.

None of this is especially surprising -- or ought to be. But common sense is increasingly uncommon in our charged-up, fast-paced, gotta-be-in-touch 24/7 society. Our need to make use of every available second -- especially the many seconds that would otherwise be wasted stuck in a traffic jam -- trumps what most of us, in our more thoughtful moments, know to be true. You just can't pay full time and attention to driving while doing anything else -- whether "anything else" is applying make-up in the rearview mirror, stuffing a burger down our gullet, trying to read directions on a scrap of crumpled-up paper -- or holding forth on some Very Important Topic on our multiplexed, video-enabled slim-line cell phones.

It's simple: Teen or geezer, anytime your mind is somewhere other than on the road ahead, your abilities as a driver are dulled. A few exceptionally skilled drivers may be able to "multi-task" behind the wheel without suffering a significant diminishment in capacity, but the evidence suggests most of us aren't so good at it -- especially in crowded suburban/urban driving situations, where things are constantly evolving and even a moment's confusion or inattention can be all the difference between a wreck and avoiding one.

For teens, the problem of being distracted is made worse by the simple fact of youthful inexperience. A panicked reaction -- or over-reaction -- is more common (and more likely) among younger drivers than veterans who've dealth with such a situation before.
A distracted, inexperienced teen driver very often results in some bent metal -- there's a reason why teenage drivers are cinsidered the highest-risk category by insurance companies -- and adding a cell phone to the mix is about as wise as wearing an Austin Powers get-up to "The Apprentice" and expecting The Donald to hire you.

Cell phones should be forbidden -- by law or by parents -- until a new driver has at least built up some skill and experience to balance things out. And arguably, the use of cell phones by drivers of all ages ought to be verboten once the gearshift is put in "Drive."

Idle banter -- the "where's the party, dude?" kind most teens are apt to be involved in -- is just as distracting as the animated, agitated negotiations/harangues over a pending business deal -- or boyfriend/girlfriend/husabd wife who is picking up the kids tonight? squabbling. It all begs for a rear-ender like '72 Pinto.

If indeed "safety" is the object here -- as we're constantly nagged about when it comes to driving a little faster than the posted speed limit or wearing our seat belts -- then surely there's at least as much justification for waiting until we're not in control of several thousand pounds of potentially lethal metal and glass hurtling down the highway before dialing up disaster.

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