Q: Why is it illegal to have a conversation with someone on a phone while driving, but it’s fine to have a conversation with the passenger in the seat next to you? Aren’t they both distracting? And I’m not suggesting that they should make talking to a passenger illegal.
A: Not all conversations are created equally. You already know that’s true after having to sit through listening to Uncle Leonard at Christmas dinner drone on about how he changed the propeller on his boat to a 14 inch stainless steel three-blade with a 21 inch pitch, and with the new Mercury 175 four stroke mounted on the transom he should be able to . . . Okay, I don’t remember anything after that. But I’m sure he’ll explain it again at the next family get-together.
How did I get so off-topic? Back to conversations in cars. Driving and talking to your friend in the car is not equivalent to talking to that same friend on the phone. One is good, and the other isn’t. I’ll let you guess which is which. The experts have some reasons (which I will share with you) as to why the same conversation with the same person has a completely different risk factor depending on where that person is. If you think their reasons are nonsense, I can still back it up with data.
Before we get too far I should point out that this applies to adult drivers. For young drivers, having friends in the car is bad too; just not as bad as talking on the phone. When a teen driver has a friend in the car, they’re 1.4 times more likely to crash (and that keeps going up with more friends) than when driving alone. When a teen driver is talking on the phone, they’re four times more likely to crash. If you’re responsible for a new driver, keep in mind that these increases are on top of their already astounding high fatal crash rate of seven times more likely than a driver between the ages of 30 and 59.
When it comes to adults though, having a passenger actually works as a protective factor. Fatal crash rates drop when you invite your friends for a ride. The big difference between conversations in the car and conversations over a phone is that your passenger sees the same thing you do. Having an experienced driver next to you helps in spotting hazards (and the exit you’re about to miss). They also instinctively moderate their conversation when driving gets intense, unlike your friend on the phone who rants about how the boss wants her to work this weekend, even though it’s her birthday. And what you want to tell her is that she knew she’d be working weekends when she applied for the job and her birthday isn’t a multiple of five so it’s not that important anyway, but instead you’re trying to navigate through the school zone you just rolled into as parents abruptly stop and double-park to pick up their kids (a topic for another article). If your friend was with you instead of on the phone, she’d stop talking and point out that the driver of the minivan in front of you just slammed on their brakes. When you’re driving, what you need most in a conversation partner is someone who can make you more aware of what’s happening on the road.
This isn’t to say that a passenger is always better than driving alone. Some passengers can be more distracting than helpful, and some conversations probably should wait until you’re not piloting a 4000 pound projectile. But if we look through a wide lens, passengers are a net benefit. Studies generally find that an adult passenger reduces crash risk by somewhere around 20 percent. There’s no way you can tell me your phone does that for you.
There is also the sound factor. Someone sitting two feet away is not likely to be hard to hear; somebody on the telephone may be unintelligible due to the quality of their phone, the location that they’re in, or even the distance their mouth is from the phone. Any sound issues put extra attention on the conversation, thereby taking attention away from the driving task at hand.