More critical thinking skills

[cjsmith]

I've heard mention of a study indicating that it is more distracting to drive with an infant in a car seat than it is to drive using a cell phone. Anyone know more? Please point me to the study.

(I'd love to see one on talking to other people inside the car, too. Actual data, not conjecture or anecdote.)

Comments

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

I can tell you from experience that this is so. There is nothing quite so mind numbing as a screaming infant in a closed space. Plus, when Allegra was tiny I learned to drive 65 miles an hour down the freeway while searching the floor behind the passenger seat for dropped items (cheese, pacifiers, rattles...) and handing them back to her, all without taking my hands off the wheel or my eyes off the road. While this was great for my ability to multitask, I'm sure it qualifies as significantly more dangerous than merely talking on a cell phone while driving (which, if one is using a headset, is absolutely no different than talking to someone in the passenger seat--in fact, it might be better, because when talking on the phone, there's no temptation to take one's eyes off the road to look at the person with whom you are conversing--OTOH, all bets are off if one tries to hand write notes during said cell phone conversation!)

Unfortunately, I don't have any data on this, and no time to look it up. I hope someone else finds it though--I've long wanted something like that.