NEWS

Driving study: Older texters more dangerous

David Jesse

It's not just those texting teenage drivers who are dangerous — moms and dads are even more so.

A new study from a team at Wayne State University's Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy shows the older people get, the more dangerous they get if they text while driving.

The study observed participants who were proficient at one-handed texting on smartphones. It found that, on average, about 50 percent of subjects crossed from one lane to another while texting while driving.

But the percentage climbed rapidly as people got older.

Young drivers — those between 18 and 24 — were the best at staying in their lane while texting, with only about 25 percent crossing lanes. Nearly 40 percent of those ages 25 to 34 crossed lanes. About 80 percent of drivers between 35 and 44 crossed lanes while texting.

But the numbers were highest for those between ages 45 and 59. Of those drivers, 100 percent wandered lane to lane while texting.

The results were surprising to the study's authors.

"There is a perception that more-experienced drivers can text and drive more safely because they can manage distractions better than less-experienced drivers," Doreen Head, assistant professor of occupational therapy, said in a news release. "Not only are adults sending the wrong message because they are telling young people to do as they say, not as they do, but they are also putting themselves and others in harm's way."

The study had a possible explanation for the increased lane drifting.

"It is possible that, relative to younger drivers, older drivers spend more of their texting time looking at their cell phones and not at the road; this could increase driving errors in our older drivers," said Randall Commissaris, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences.

"Alternatively, it is possible that older drivers do not differ from younger drivers with respect to the time spent looking at their phones, but they are more distracted by texting while driving because they are less able to manage the cognitive demands of multitasking. Of course, it is possible that both of these factors may be contributing to the greater extent of texting-induced impairment of driving observed in older drivers. Future studies monitoring eye glances during texting in older and younger drivers will be useful to test these various hypotheses."