Americans have so many distractions in their cars they are becoming part-time drivers--trying to eat, talk on the phone, use a computer, navigate and change tapes while coping with highway traffic. It's a formula for disaster.
"People forget how complex driving is," Dr. Ricardo Martinez, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said. "We're adding so many distractions we're becoming part-time drivers," said Martinez, a former emergency room doctor who saw the results of inattention first hand. "There's a price to pay in crashes."
"We are beginning to see crashes … where drivers were using laptop computers while driving and third-party suppliers are now providing hardware for mounting laptop computers adjacent to the driver or, in some cases, right on the steering wheel," his agency reported.
But it isn't just a high-tech problem, Martinez added, noting crashes can result from something as simple as trying to eat while driving.
A Canadian study found that talking on a cellular phone while driving a car quadrupled the risk of an accident and was about as dangerous as being nearly drunk behind the wheel.