From AIM-NCOM NEWS BYTES

http://www.aimncom.com/index_home.htm

DISTRACTED DRIVERS CAUSE 80 PERCENT OF ACCIDENTS 

You're half the driver you could be if you're 

simply listening to a passenger let alone 

talking to someone -- or doing worse -- while 

cruising down the highway. Brain power 

associated with driving decreases by 40 percent 

when a driver listens to someone talk, whether 

it's a passenger or on the radio, said Marcel 

Just, a psychologist who directs the Center for 

Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon 

University.

A study last year by researchers at the National 

Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 

and Virginia Tech University found that 80 

percent of accidents involved some form of 

driver inattention within three seconds of the 

accident.

Yet more than 80 percent of drivers recently 

surveyed by Nationwide Mutual Insurance admitted 

they were multi-taskers in the car. Some 

confessed to blatantly hazardous behavior while 

driving such as: Steering with a foot; Painting 

toenails; Shaving; Feeding a baby; and even 

Peeing out the window.

"We've got a lot of people out there doing 

everything but driving," said Bill Windsor, 

safety expert at Nationwide. A man in 

Schenectady, N.Y., was arrested in 2004 for 

having a pornographic DVD playing on the 

passenger-side sun visor, and a woman was caught 

breastfeeding her 7-month-old daughter while 

driving on the Ohio Turnpike in 2003. If caught, 

drivers could be cited with careless driving, 

police said.

Cell phones most often are blamed for poor 

driving. Four states -- California, Connecticut, 

New Jersey and New York - and Washington, D.C., 

have banned hand-held cell phones for all 

drivers. Fourteen more states so far this year 

have introduced legislation restricting 

hand-held cell phone use, according to the 

National Conference of State Legislatures.

That's fine with Just, of the Center for 

Cognitive Brain Imaging. "There's this whole 

attitude toward highway safety," he said. 

"Taking risks in driving is sort of a social 

issue and not just a personal issue. It's a 

little different than not wearing a motorcycle 

helmet."