Yes, they are…if they talk on a cell phone, even a hands-free phone, while they are driving. New research debunks the idea that talking on a “hands-free” phone while driving a car is safe. In a breakthrough brain imaging study last spring, scientists at the Carnegie Mellon Institute showed for the first time “that listening alone reduces by 37 percent the amount of brain activity associated with driving. This can cause drivers to weave out of their lane, based on the performance of subjects using a driving simulator.”
Teen drivers (and others) often head down the road with a host of distractions diverting their attention from driving: music, listening to the radio, texting, eating, talking to passengers. But scientists at the prestigious engineering college in Pittsburg think that cell phones “may be especially distracting” because of the social demands they impose, like not ignoring the party on the other end in heavy traffic.
Driving and listening use two different brain networks that “scientists had previously suspected could work independently on each task.” But the Carnegie Mellon study concluded that the brain can only do so much at one time. Additional “inputs” take attention away from watching for other cars, “lane markers, obstacles and sudden changes in conditions.” That includes cell phones.
