They Are In The Car

So a study finds that a small percentage of the population can talk on the phone and drive at the same time. I'll bet that everyone in the pro-talk-and-drive camp thinks that they fall in that category. Despite the discovery of these unusual "supertaskers," the study found nothing to disprove that driving while conversing on the phone is bloody dangerous for the majority of us.

The talk-and-drive camp usually ask but what about talking to passengers? This article mentions another study which included that very question in the research. They found that while talking to passengers is definitely distracting, it isn't anywhere near as bad as talking on the phone. Why?

It's simple. They are in the car with the driver where they can tell that he is busy, and will shut up while he deals with the situation. A person on the other end of the phone conversation won't know why the driver has gone silent, and will probably talk at a crucial moment.

Ontario's hands-free-phone-only law is really toothless. There's a fine but no demerit points, even though it is moving violation and is as dangerous as drunk driving.