UK study - Food-drivers as deadly as phone-drivers

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...318415,00.html

Eating and driving is as risky as using a phone at the wheel

By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

DRIVERS who eat and drink at the wheel are twice as likely to have a
crash, a study has indicated. They try to compensate for the
distractions of eating and drinking by driving more slowly and
carefully, but they are often unable to brake in time to avoid a
collision.
The risk is similar to using a handheld mobile phone while driving,
for which the fixed penalty is to be raised from a £30 to a £60 fine
plus three points.

Road safety groups said that the absence of any legislation or clear
guidance on the dangers of eating and drinking while driving
encouraged motorists to think it was safe.

The research found that a third of people sometimes used handheld
mobile phones while driving, but three quarters ate or drank at the
wheel.

The 26 participants in the study by Brunel University were asked to
drive a Ford Mondeo simulator on an urban route, once without eating
and once while eating from a bag of wrapped sweets or drinking from a
bottle of water. The simulator would show a pedestrian suddenly
stepping into the road and then measure the drivers’ responses.

Even though the participants tended to slow down while unwrapping a
sweet or unscrewing and raising the bottle to their lips, they were
still twice as likely to hit the pedestrian.

(snip)

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Plus the psychopaths also play with radios and CD players and read
books while driving and could care less if they crash into you. When
are people gonna wake up and realize that reckless drivers are
hundred times the threat that terrorists are.