NEW YORK: Scientists have found that while all motorists tended to perform worse when trying to send messages on a mobile phone, those who were aged between 45 and 59 years old performed worse.
Professor Randall Commisaris, a pharmaceutical scientist at Wayne State University, in Detroit, Michigan, said the findings showed that older drivers struggled to cope with distractions, despite having more experience.
Indeed, he said that many older drivers believe they can get away with using their mobile phone while behind the wheel because they think they are better, safer drivers than those with less experience.
He said, “Generally, people believe that younger drivers are more easily distracted and therefore would be more susceptible to the dangers of texting and driving. However, our study -which included drivers ranging in age from 18 to 59 – demonstrated just the opposite. Although texting while driving had a negative impact on drivers of all ages, younger drivers were less distracted by texting and older drivers’ performance was much worse because of their texting.”
The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention, tested the driving of 50 motorists aged between 18 and 59 years old who all owned smartphones and indicated they were prolific texters able to send messages with one hand.
The study showed that while sending messages, about 50 percent of all the drivers strayed from their line while trying to text.
However, among those aged between 45 and 59 years old, 100 percent of the motorists strayed from their lanes while texting.
For subjects between the age of 35 and 44 years old, 80 percent of subjects left their lane when texting and 40 per cent of those between 25 and 35.
