Impairment while driving on phone > drunk driving

I talked about this one before, but I had to mention that I just watched a Mythbusters episode on the Discovery Channel that confirmed that impairment is at least as bad, if not worse, while driving and talking on a cell phone, as while driving drunk.

The participants/testers drove a driving course three times. Once with no distractions, once on the phone while answering questions they had to think about, and once with a blood alcohol level of approximately 0.07 (i.e., just below the legal limit).

They each passed the course on the non-impaired trial, failed more than half of the course on the cell phone, and failed about half the course while drunk. In other words, they did slightly worse while on the cell phone than they did while drunk.

Now… how many of you will stop talking on the cell phone in the car? Those of you with your hands raised: I applaud your intentions. I also don’t believe you for a second. But maybe you’ll spend less time on the phone, and that’s good.

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