ABSTRACT
Advances in vehicle technology have seen an increase in the range of in-car systems which compete for driver attention in addition to the driving task. An example, which has led to widespread public and academic debate is the use of cellular (mobile) telephones whilst driving. Results from experimental studies have indicated that mobile telephone use may lead to clear deficits in driver control such as increasing braking and reaction times (e.g. Alm and Nilsson, 1995; Lamble et al, 1999), increasing variance in lateral positioning of the vehicle (e.g. Brookhuis et al, 1991) and altering the allocation of visual attention (e.g. Wikman et al, 1998). Telephone use whilst driving has also been reported to exacerbate the successful maintenance of vehicle speed and distance from other vehicles more than drinking alcohol equivalent to the UK legal driving limit (Direct Line Insurance, 2002).
