Mobile phone cameras aimed at drivers

mobile phone driving

The A roads and motorways now policed by average speed cameras are the only carriageways in Britain on which most drivers are travelling within the speed limit. And now engineers in Australia have developed a new technology could have a similarly transformative effect on mobile phone use behind the wheel.

The new cameras take a bird’s eye view of passing cars and can very quickly identify the body language of drivers using mobile phones. It’s a solution that we are in desperate need of here in Britain. The threat of a penalty, which now comprises six points and a fine of £200, seemingly has little effect.

The fact that drivers fail to take the matter seriously mirrors the apathy of our authorities; in 2015, cyclist Lee Martin was killed by a driver who had eight previous convictions for using his phone at the wheel. The number of convictions has also halved as have fines imposed by the courts. Another case in 2015 saw a driver who was talking on her phone hands-free run over and kill a two-year-old child. She was looking for a parking space while talking and assumed she had struck a shopping trolley, Harrow crown court was told. The driver escaped a jail sentence.

Hands-free use of phones has been shown to be more distracting to drivers than talking on a mobile. Perhaps drivers need to take everything about driving a little more seriously. A significant proportion of motorists appear to use a car like a washing machine; switch it on and then think about something else. Multi-tasking behind the wheel has become commonplace; eating, talking, arguing, changing music, checking makeup and admonishing children while driving are rarely perceived as posing a danger to ourselves or others. However, research carried out by the AAA Foundation for Traffic in Washington, DC, suggests that even seemingly minor tasks can be distracting.

Researchers asked participants to carry out tasks that ranged in complexity from listening to music up to verifying a number mathematical equations – memorising nouns between each calculations. The tasks were carried out at a desk top, at the controls of a driving simulator and finally behind the wheel of a real car.

The results were consolidated into a single number representative of the mental distraction caused by each task. The participants had their brain waves monitored for ‘event-related potentials’ and at the same time their reaction times were assessed. A score of 1.0 represented doing nothing at all and the maths and word-memory task scored 5.0. The results were surprising:

  • Listening to the radio scored 1.21, while having an audio book on the go increased that to 1.75
  • Making a hand-free phone call scored 2.27 and a conversation with a passenger in the same car was found to be more distracting at 2.33
  • Using a hand-held mobile phone to make a call while driving scored 2.45
  • The highest score, 3.06, was attained by those using hands-free texting

Our compulsive behaviour around mobile phones has highlighted by an American study of 1,000 drivers, 98 per cent of whom agreed it was dangerous to text and drive. However, 74 per cent claimed they had done so with 30 per cent saying it is ‘simply a habit’ because they are so used to being connected to their phone, and they believed their driving performance was not impacted by texting.

Dr Greenfield, founder of The Centre for Internet and Technology Addiction and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Connecticut School of Medicine, who worked on the report, said at the time of publication; “We compulsively check our phones because every time we get an update through text, email or social media, we experience an elevation of dopamine, which is a neurochemical in the brain that makes us feel happy. If that desire for a dopamine fix leads us to check our phones while we’re driving, a simple text can turn deadly.”

Research by Nottingham Trent University found that the average user checks their phone 85 times a day and that ‘rapid mobile phone interactions’, less than 30 seconds, are becoming habitual for smartphone users, with many not realising the frequency with which they check their phone.

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Young drivers in particular are more likely to be distracted. Just under half of drivers (49%) aged 25–34 admitted they sometimes go online or use apps while driving. Almost a third of drivers in the same age group said they do this several times a week at least.

These compulsive habits are both dangerous and illegal. Drivers are four times more likely to be in a crash if they are using a phone whilst driving, and their reaction times are two-times slower than those drink-driving.

Police believe more road accidents are caused by drivers using their mobile phones at the wheel than is currently shown in official records. Half of those surveyed also agreed the role of phones was even overlooked in fatal crashes.

It always takes time before the law and social convention catch up with this kind of news – it took decades for drink driving to be considered unacceptable behaviour – but in the meantime, the safest course of action is to switch off your mobile entirely.

The French government looks likely to strip motorists of their driving licences when they are caught using their mobile phones at the wheel.

The plan forms part of a range of new measures aimed at reducing road danger including a cut in speed limit on country roads to 80km/h.

Driver’s caught using a mobile look likely to face a three-month suspension of their driving  licence. Currently, drivers in France using a mobile phone at the wheel face a fine of €135 and three penalty points.

However, in common with Britain, increased fines and penalty have not stopped the dangerous habit. In 2015 alone, 300,000 drivers in France were fined after being caught using their phone. As with speeding, it seems likely the only measure that will curb dangerous mobile phone use behind the wheel will be a further proliferation of cameras.

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Comments

  1. Douglas Milsom

    Reply

    I believe that the comments about the use of hands free phones needs qualification.
    Any long and detailed conversation while driving is an obvious distraction, whether it is a private or business matter, with a passenger or a phone, but for those of us use their mobile purely as a short message machine any distraction my easily be limited.
    I use mine for receiving information whilst doing voluntary driving for the local hospital, and a typical conversation is “Mrs A has cancelled — Thanks” or “Mr B is waiting to go home — Expect to be with you in 15 minutes”. These short chats can be suspended if traffic conditions are difficult “Hang on for a minute please till I clear this roundabout”. These are all less distracting than some of the advertisement hoardings and other unnecessary rubbish alongside our roads!

  2. Baker

    Reply

    I don’t quite follow the hands free point. You’re suggesting that a conversation held with both hands on the wheel is MORE distracting than holding your phone to your ear and continuing to try and drive?? What ridiculous research has demonstrated this?

    As far as I’m concerned, until talking to passengers is banned, I can’t see any justification for restricting use of hands free comms. You’d need some seriously selective research to find one more distracting than the other.

    • David

      Reply

      It’s pretty obvious really. A passenger sees the situation too and either stops talking or shouts „watch out“. The hands free interlocutor just wonders why the line went dead.

      Check out the safety video texting and walking…

    • Chris

      Reply

      Actually the DFT carried out research on hands free mobile use whilst driving and found that such activity made drivers’ ability to perform the tasks required for safe driving impaired at least as much as someone who was over the drink drive limit.

  3. Jim Clark

    Reply

    Why all this talking on mobile phones, can’t it wait. Mobile phone users are so stupid there is even a sign in our doctors surgery saying not to answer your phone whilst in the consulting room, the ignorance is appalling.
    I have a phone and hardly ever use it. I have used it in an emergency twice to call out a lifeboat to small craft in difficulties. l live near the coast and frequently walk in remote areas along a treacherous coastline, once for an RTA I happened to witness so I’m aware of the plusses of having one, but this constant babbling is beyond me.
    And of course any distraction whilst driving is potentially lethal to someone.

  4. Dave

    Reply

    The only way I use my phone while driving is as a GPS which is held in a clip on top of the middle of the dashboard. While there is of course some minor distraction, I believe this is considerably less than peering at signs, road names and house numbers in unfamiliar locations.
    Is this use illegal?

  5. Michael Boxall

    Reply

    Have you thought of lobbying the film and TV industry about the example they set? I’m not sure about mobile phone use, but in TV dramas, drivers often take their eyes off the road for unfeasibly long periods of time, usually to make eye contact with their passenger so that the conversation makes more sense dramatically. Surely this makes them poor role models.

  6. Vincent Edwards

    Reply

    I often hear the point made by Baker. And I give the explanation set out by David.

    If you are talking on a ‘phone the person on the other end won’t know why you’ve suddenly stopped speaking – so you’re likely to try to continue speaking during dangerous situations which require your full concentration. If the content of your conversation is so important that it has to be said right away, it is likely to be taking your mind off driving. So you should either stop driving or stop the call. If your call is not that important then it can wait until you’ve finished driving anyway. You may think you are a driving genius, but the chances are you are not.

    As for texting and checking Facebook at the wheel – does anyone seriously dispute how dangerous this is?

    Years of government pussy footing on this issue has led many motorists to believe it’s not all that serious. It should be treated like drink driving. Once the twelve-month disqualifications (and prison sentences for persistent offenders) are handed down, they will begin to comprehend that mobile multi-tasking is not a skill to be admired.

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