London, Dec 16 (ANI): Talking on a headset or hands-free phone while driving can be as risky as handheld phone, researchers say.
Researchers at the Governors Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that even when using a Bluetooth or other device, which allows drivers to keep both hands on the wheel while talking on a cell, the brain is focusing on the conversation, rather than on the road.
Jim Hedlund, a safety consultant and former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official, recently examined 300 cellphone studies for the Governors Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
He could not recall a single study that indicated that drivers talking on a headset or hands-free phone were at any less risk of an accident than drivers with one hand on the wheel and a phone in the other.
The study has led the National Transportation Safety Board this week to recommend that states ban all cellphone use - hands-free or handheld - by drivers.
"There is a large body of evidence showing that talking on a phone, whether handheld or hands-free, impairs driving and increases your risk of having a crash," the Daily Mail quoted Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety as saying.
NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman insisted that it is not where your hands are, but where your mind is that counts.
Marcel Just, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging said that every time a human brain gets engaged in multitasking, each task is performed with lower efficiency.
"The human mind can multitask, but each task is performed with less brain power and lower proficiency," Just said.
He said that it is counterintuitive to think that hands-free talking is dangerous because people do not have any sense that their conversation is draining brainpower away from driving, but that is exactly what is happening. (ANI)
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