I do not think it means what you think it means...

"reaction time dropped by 25 per cent for those sending text messages"

The problem is....

...that loads of young people do indeed believe that they are capable of driving while texting.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they think they can keep their Facebook profiles up to date safely while they are driving.

what i would like to know is...

if being stoned hampers you soooo much how come i can kick ass on a ps3 after a 12 hour session? i can happily fly round tracks at 200mph fine.

i would also like to know their definition of 'drunk' - is that the over the limit 1 pint drunk? or actually steaming drunk? as im considerably less coordinated after a skinful that i am when stoned (btw - i dont drink/smoke and drive)

also a lot of people have admitted to texting whilst driving... is that when crawling along at 10mph in towns or doing 80 on a motorway?

ahhh dont you love stats!

As a single mother, I think...

[Don't you love non-sequiturs starting with that info?]

Well, not being a single mother, I like this type of study. For example, driving a motorbike carries a slightly higher risk as driving a car while both drunk AND drugged (being just one of those two being much safer). But the big difference is that the motorbiker risks mostly him/herself [75% of accidents being one-sided, even]. The conclusion is obvious: force any person found texting in a car, to drive a motorbike [and allow them to text then]. This is a Darwinian approach, leading to superior bikers. I as a biker without driving licence strongly approve of this.

Drug addled

You mean the the ability to juggle is a result of drug taking?! Oh, wait; you mean *affected"...

El Reg in "no sh*t, Sherlock" shocker!

Carried off with your usual panache! :-)

But surely you meant "ability to juggle is *a*ffected"...

I'm posting this whilst driving...

...oh shit, I've just run over an old lady on a zebra crossing...

Crap stoners in this test

I get my fastest laptimes whilst stoned. Crap stoners to be honest.

Another shocker

Being a women affects your ability to drive well... by up to 100%...

The amount of times I've been cut-up, had to brake at roundabouts due to tunnel-vision femm's and been stuck behind a little mouse driving at 30 in a national speed limit zone is incredible. Yes I agree that blokey's are usually more aggressive on the roads, but being aggressive is not dangerous in itself. What is dangerous is a women looking in the mirror and playing with her hair at 70mph+ (again, I've been behind multiple women drivers who do this - it wasn't just a one-off).

So the headline should read something like "Being a women worse for drivers than texting, drink or drugs".

I've got my coat and I'm out the door before the backlash can take place.... :-)

texting is fine

I can text fine, I can have a couple of beers and drive fine, I can even smoke a spliff and driver fine. The one thing that really screws up my ability to drive is when I'm trying to move some hair that's fallen infront of my face, and sneezing is a real danger too.

@"Morans read it as..."

Oh dear @ Morans. dat wud be lyk me slgin ppl 4 txt spk.

Anyway, I've been known to text whilst driving, while crawling round town at 10/20mph and also whilst on the motorways etc at speeds of 70mph + ( Yes I sometimes speed)

Let the flaming begin,

the really important question is...

How does one sign up for these tests? I quite fancy a bit of government sanctioned and funded toking in a driving simulator.

Just imagine

Difficult to text 'aaaaaaargh' without any vowels.

Paris, as she too can adversely affect my grip on the wheel...

Using you phone whilst driving is a crime

all we need now is a copper on the street to nick you when you do. ah... here lies the flaw in our plan!

@James - Well said!

"Why on earth does anyone think they are so f*cking important that they must continuously be in touch with everyone else (shortly before they become deceased forever!)?"

Exactly! Phone/text while driving, that gets my goat no end, you really a complete ass-hat of the first order. Do you really think that your that important or that invincible? Yah, well let's up the ante, you get in one of those electric cars and get it up to max speed in the fast lane, then start texting, I will then ask 10 lorry drivers high on angel dust to keep nudging you and we'll see how long you think you can last. Hey in fact, I think this is a great idea for a new game show!

The big one is when the butt-munch involved feels the need to walk out underground station and instantly they have to have that phone out to see how important they are and how many calls they have missed while they have been out of service for all of 10 mins maximum! The upshot of this moronic behaviour is to clog the pavement area directly outside said station, while the rest us have to try to dodge around the dawdling knut, trying to make our connection to the next mode of transport!

no hands and steering with ears?

Reg hacks clearly need to go and try this out (on a test course of course). They can steer with their knees and/or one hand and text one handed (even a pissed and stoned reg hack can text one handed).

@Martin

Oh yes. I never see 30/40/50something audi/cayenne drivers do that. Honestly

Off on a tangent:

Have you ever noticed that the more expensive the car, the less likely the driver is to be using a handsfree set of some flavour?

Maybe they could research that instead. Does it have to do with small genitalia and looking important?

Evil Steve, 'cause trying to second-guess the iPhone's autocorrect while driving will definitely kill you.

is there a hands free way to text?

OK - so now if I'm called when I'm driving I've got my dinky little headset on and I press a button and go "Who is it?" cos I can't see cos my phone's on the seat next to me or in the well under the gear stick. But it's ok, I'm hands free, I'm concentrating on driving and looking at where I'm going...

So far so good...

But what about texting?

To text, you need to be able to read the text and write texts. Can this be made driver-safe?

Here's a way:

If someone were to invent / re-purpose a bluetooth heads-up display of some kind that could go on the dashboard... with some kind of paddle-operated system mounted on the steering column similar to what racing drivers use to change gear / the rest of us use on steering-wheel mounted radio and volume controls - couldn't this be done. Obviously you wouldn't have the 12 key numerical keypad but there's bound to be some sort of workaround possible. After all, if you were in desperate need to text, you'd pull over and do it by hand.

Also controls and a headsup display like this could be used to control a phone to make outgoing calls / screen calls.

Just a thought....

@Master Baker the misogynist

Let's ignore your anecdote-based evidence, shall we? It proves absolutely nothing.

Let's just observe that women actually pay less for their car insurance. And insurance is based on real measured statistics. So why do women pay less for their car insurance? Because they generally have fewer accidents, and the ones they have cause less damage. As good a measure of "safer drivers" as I know.

Errmm

Wasn't there some research that showed that hands free sets were just as dangerous as using a mobile with your paws ? They'd already put the legislation in place so they didn't bother putting an outright ban on using phones while driving.........

Would you admit it?

"Don't believe it? How many road deaths last year were put down to one driver texting and how many were down to one driver being pissed as arseholes?"

How many people would readily admit to crashing due to texting, thats even dumber than texting while driving

@Ash, make that 3 :)

@The Fuzzy Wotnot - I have a solution to that, it works very well. Wait for said idiot to stop in front of you and barge really hard into the back of them, they will either drop their phone or they will fall flat on their face. If they complain just say sorry you were looking at your mobile phone :)

@Simon Brown - yup there is, it's called a BMW or Mercedes (can't remember which models coe with this HUD and phone features).

re: drug addled

Good to see some people still know English.

Hell yeah!

Free weed and driving games, Where do I sign up?!

Flame?

Theres no smoke without fire...

Solution - talking too

ALL cellphones are now equipped with GPS -

lets USE it.

The GPS can be used to determine the velocity of the phone.

If (velocity > Max_Allowed_Movement_Speed)

Disconnect_Call = True

Allow_Incoming_Call = False

Allow_Outgoing_Call = False

Allow_Emergency_Call = True

Disconnect_Text_Message = True

Allow_Text_Outgoing_Message = False

Allow_Text_Incoming_Message = False

else

<all of above = true>

end if

Max_Allowed_Movement_Speed = 8 mph/12 kph

this speed allows usage in stopped (very slow) traffic, while walking, running.

@Fred

So you are suggesting that mobiles shoiuld not be allowed to operate on public transport? Oh, hang on...

Have a co-pilot

Recently , only about 50 years ago, I worked for a fellow who smoked.

He rolled his own cigs.(do they still have those?) and as he controlled the steering wheel with his knees ,

all I had to do was to make regular course corrections from the passengers seat , as the car headed off the road..

We survived about 5 years of that behaviour .

I see the post from Stevie , that such things still go on, and even more so than my generation did.

Texting kills

Seriously -- here in California we just recently had a very serious train wreck caused by an engineer texting. He paid with his life, and the lives of 25 others.