Distracted Driving Literature

Literature review - PSY 240
Cell phones have always been blacklisted as the cause to motor vehicle accidents. They are blamed for distracted drivers making errors on the road resulting in accidents. Driving requires a degree of concentration to both the external stimuli of the road, pedestrians, and other drivers, as well as concentration to the continued maintenance of the vehicle within a given driving lane, however, there are distractions to every driver when driving.
Whether the distraction is physical, as in holding a cell phone while driving, or auditory, as in having a conversation on a hands-free cell phone, distractions have a monumental effect on the processing of the human brain. In instances where the individual driving is not
summarized the effects of having distractions while driving. The main topics researched included the legislation already set in place regarding cell phone use whilst driving, what kind of phone was used (hand-held, or hands-free), and the level of strain during the conversation. Researching all of these factors contributes to the overall conclusion of drivers being distracted by mobile devices. One of the most interesting conclusions drawn from this study is that Collet et al. were able to conclusively summarize that it is in fact the distraction caused by the conversation itself that was the main distractor. Methodologies that were included in the study and proved evidence for the previous conclusion were the comparison of people being distracted by conversation in the car or on the phone (collet, 2008). In each case, the conditions were changed to assure that independent variables were not yielding skewed results; the driving conditions were changed as well as hands-free versus hand-held devices versus in person conversations. Independent variable analysis showed that not only did the distractions such as driving conditions, or traffic; affected ones driving, it also affected the conversation that was taking
There were no direct participants involved in the research paper, but the FARS provides information on every accident that has at least 1 fatality, including gender, ethnicity, age, previous violation, type of collision, and location of crash. A fatality was defined as being caused by distraction if a driver-related accident factor was recorded as being emotional, inattentive, or careless, or using a cellular phone, computer, or fax machine, or on-board navigation or heads-up display system and a total of 51,857 fatalities were caused by driver distraction from 1999 to 2008 (Stimpson & Wilson, 2010). Results include a trend report comparing fatalities due to distracted driving, and number of cell phone subscribers per capita. Fatalities due to distracted driving grew high as 13.4% of all driving fatalities from in 2003, then saw a decline to 10.5% in 2005, then saw a rapid increase to 15.8% (Stimpson & Wilson, 2010). Cellphone subscribers grew steadily in a linear pattern and cannot be determined as the cause of the volatile patterns seen from the fatalities due to distracted driving. On the other hand, number of texts sent per month grew