Traffic injury prevention
-
Traffic injury prevention · Sep 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialBoth texting and eating are associated with impaired simulated driving performance.
Distracted driving is a known contributor to traffic accidents, and many states have banned texting while driving. However, little is known about the potential accident risk of other common activities while driving, such as eating. The objective of the current study was to examine the adverse impact of eating/drinking behavior relative to texting and nondistracted behaviors on a simulated driving task. ⋯ These findings suggest that both texting and eating are associated with poorer simulated driving performance. Future work is needed to determine whether these findings generalize to real-world driving and the development of strategies to reduce distracted driving.