Using a Hands-Free Device While Driving Is Not Risk-Free!
While driving while using a hands-free device is a safer choice than using a handheld device, it’s still not the safest choice!
Considering the statistics for distracted driving, they teach us that despite taking basic measures to ensure our own safety, your cellphone or even a turn of conversation, can take your attention away from driving, which can greatly increase your chances of getting into an accident!
What Happens When You Use Your Cellphone
The hands-free device might be handy in helping you keep both hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road. But you forget one major factor in the equation: your attention!
Even basic factors such as listening to music, map-reading and navigating using the GPS, eating or drinking, and speaking with your passengers play a big role in keeping you distracted from driving. However, with a hands-free device, what makes the situation worse is your focus on the conversation at hand. You’re more involved, you’re communicating freely. This means you’re distracted.
An Example
Think of it as pacing while you speak on the phone. Why you wander around your home or your office aimlessly while talking on the phone is because when you communicate with someone face-to-face, your brain tries to decipher their overall body language, tones and other communication cues. But when you’re on the phone, the lack of physical feedback causes the connected parts of your mind to seek that feedback.
Your brain fills in what’s missing and you start moving here and there, as a way of filling in the missing information from communication cues.
When you’re driving and talking on your hands-free, a few of your senses are aware of what’s happening around you, but you still miss out on some key elements because your mind seeks that physical stimulus, which it’s not getting. It’s majorly distracted and trying to keep track of all activities happening at the same time.
Thus, your response time decreases. You bring yourself and those around you in more danger because while you drive, you keep your attention divided among the different tasks at hand and the conversation, the latter of which takes a chunk of your concentration!
What Can Be Done?
One is that you could forgo using your cellphone in your vehicle completely, so you eliminate the distraction. If you need to attend a call, park by the side of the road or leave your phone on silent and call back after you’ve reached your destination.
The second is to attend defensive driving classes. A great way of fine-tuning your driving skills, defensive driving makes you more aware of how you can stay safe on the road. So, you feel more assured of your driving abilities next time you get out on the road.
Conclusion
A nifty technological device it may be, using a hands-free has more cons than pros if you’re considering using it as a communication mode while driving. So, go completely hands-free next time you take your car out for a spin. Consider it a positive move for your safety as well as that of those around you!
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