Even with both hands on the wheel, drivers on cell phones are a lot like drunk drivers.
that's according to new research.
The brain can't really focus on two things at the same time. A study by Carnegie Mellon University reports that just talking on the phone reduces activity in the part of the brain responsible for driving by 37 percent. Cathy Blusiewicz, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist says, "Driving while talking on the cell phone approaches the same disability in terms of driving as driving intoxicated does."
And, she says, the effect is even worse for teenagers. "Driving is a learned skill- and we become much more automatically proficient at it with the number of years we've had driving. And so we are combining children and adolescents who are brand new drivers. They don't have the learned skill- plus they are only giving 50-percent at most attention to it if they are on the phone."
