Driving Distracted

I agree with points made by Steven Yantis, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University; when he says,"Part of the problem may be that when people direct their attention to sound, the visual capacity of their brain decreases." I agree with this statement because as a learning driver I'm learning that driving takes all your focus and you need to be aware of everything around you. If you are talking on the phone or texting while doing so, then you are taking your focus away from the road and everything else. I also agree with points made about hands free devices. "A series of 2007 simulator tests conducted by Strayer seems to indicate the opposite. A passenger acted as another set of eyes for the driver in the test and even stopped or started talking depending on the difficulty of conditions outside the car. Meanwhile, half the drivers talking on a hands-free phone failed, bypassing the rest area the test had called for them to stop at." Even though you are not holding your phone while driving your focus is still on the call and not on the road. When you are not focused on the road and the other things around you, then your chance of an accident increases alot. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1916291-1,00.html