drunk with chats

So it's true! Chatting and talking can make your head confused as you had an excess of alcohol in the blood.
That means it's very dangerous to drive while talking at the phone even on a lawful hands-free phones.
It's exactly the result of a research conducted by psychologists J. Watson and D. Strayer.

To learn more read the whole story by Daily Mail Reporter

Hands-free phone devices are as dangerous as drink drivers, scientists have claimed
Drivers having a conversation on a hands-free mobile phone could be as dangerous as those who are drunk behind the wheel, scientists believe.
Researchers found that using a handset on speaker phone, or fitted with a headset, while in control of a car causes a drop in concentration equivalent to being over the drinkdrive limit.
Motorists using the legal devices took almost a fifth longer to hit the brakes in an emergency and were shown to be less aware of traffic around them.
Psychologists Jason Watson and David Strayer said their findings were important because they prove the vast majority of us can't do more than one thing at a time.
But while this is true for 97.5 per cent of drivers, the researchers discovered that 2.5 per cent of their subjects were 'supertaskers' who are able to do two things at once.
Dr Watson and Dr Strayer asked 200 volunteers to drive along a motorway in a simulator.
The subjects were monitored for their braking reaction time, the distance at which they followed the car in front and asked to carry out simple maths and memory problems.
They then repeated the simulation while having a conversation on a hands-free mobile, which involved memorising words and carrying out more maths problems.
The 2.5 per cent of supertaskers had no increase in braking time, following distance or maths ability while talking on the phone - and their memory abilities actually improved 3 per cent.



But Dr Watson warned that they were exceptionally rare.
He said: 'While we'd probably all like to think we are the exception to the rule, the odds are overwhelmingly against it.
'In fact, the odds of being a supertasker are about as good as your chances of flipping a coin and getting five heads in a row.'
Although it has been illegal for drivers to hold a mobile at the wheel since 2003, it is still lawful to use a hands-free kit as long as motorists are in proper control of their vehicle.
But now the research by the University of Utah psychologists, published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, could throw the law into doubt.
It found that the drivers on their phones took 20 per cent longer to hit the brakes when needed.
The average following distance also increased by 30 per cent - which the scientists said reflected drivers' failure to keep pace with traffic around them.
Memory performance declined 11 per cent, and the ability to do maths problems fell 3 per cent.
The results show that driving performance routinely falls while using a hands-free mobile phone and is comparable to the impairment seen in drunken drivers.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1262447/Hands-free-phones-risky-drink-driving-We-things-time-say-scientists.html#ixzz0jjEshRNP