Children more distracting to drivers than mobile phones

Many mums may already be aware of this, but a new study suggests that children are a greater distraction to drivers than using a mobile phone.

 

The research, conducted by the Monash University Accident Research Centre in Melbourne, analysed car journeys taken by 12 families with kids aged between 1 and 8 years old over a three week period. 

 

Each trip was filmed by a camera and in 90 of the 92 car journeys studied the average parent took their eyes off the road for three minutes and 22 seconds. The recordings found that children in the rear seat accounted for 12% of potentially distracting activities, this is in comparison to the 1% caused by mobile phones.

 

According to the study, fathers are more likely to be distracted than mums and the presence of a front seat passenger “did not significantly affect the way in which drivers engaged in potentially distracting child-related activities.”

 

Children had previously been overlooked as a source to the problem of distracted driving but the results show that kids are 12 times more distracting than a mobile.

 

Dr. Judith Charlton, associate director of the centre, says: “The costs of distracted driving are undeniable. One major and previously unrecognised distraction is kids in the back seat.”