Ever wonder what’s clicking in your brain when you drive and use a cell phone?
Too much, according to a paper released Friday by the National Safety Council. It mentions more than 30 studies and describes the risks of using a cell phone while driving.
Using any cell phone requires the brain to multitask — a process it cannot do and drive safely.
Cell phone use while driving not only impairs driving performance, but it also weakens the brain’s ability to capture driving cues. The paper describes how drivers who use cell phones have a tendency to “look at” but not “see” up to 50 percent of the information in their driving environment.
A form of inattention blindness occurs, which results in drivers having difficulty monitoring their surroundings, seeking and identifying potential hazards, and responding to unexpected situations.
At any time, 11 percent of all drivers are on cell phones, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NSC estimates that one of every four vehicle crashes involves a cell phone.
“This white paper provides the necessary background and context for lawmakers and employers considering distracted driving legislation and policies,” said Janet Froetscher, NSC president. Hello, Alabama Legislature, are you awake?
To see the paper, visit www.nsc.org LIVE CHAT: Log on to
blog.al.com/drivers-side at 1 p.m. Monday for a live chat.
BUMPER SNICKER: Support bacteria, that’s the only culture some people have.
COMMENT: I wish one gas station operator would step up to the plate and say, “I’m tired of this $2.69 and nine-tenths garbage. I’m gonna charge $2.70 a gallon.”
— Linda Talley, Homewood.
Q. The trash along the I-20 median barrier from Brompton to the first Leeds exit is horrific! There has been a dead deer there for over three months, rotting away. There is all kinds of trash, from tire retreads to regular litter. Why isn’t the highway department cleaning it up? I’m ashamed and wonder what out-ofstate drivers think. On trips I have made to Tennessee or Georgia you don’t see this trash build-up. The trash is in both Jefferson and St. Clair counties, so I don’t know if it is overlooked due to maybe two different divisions of the highway department thinking the other maintains this area. — Lora Roberts,
A. St. Clair ALDOT District Engineer Gary Smith said his part of the I-20 median will be cleaned. His district does not have a contract with a company to sweep the highways, but in the past he has borrowed one from Jefferson County.