Distracted driving researcher Despina Stavrinos: ‘I’m terrified when I’m on the road’

Kevin Allen

An unexpected byproduct of researching distracted driving is that it can make you wary of getting behind the wheel.

“I’m terrified when I’m on the road,” says Despina Stavrinos, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“I’m too aware of the risks, so driving is just a scary thing. Many times I’m on the road or on my way to work and I see someone ahead swerving and I can tell that’s a distracted driver. Sure enough, when we pass them we can see that they’re texting, and it’s really scary.”

It makes sense. At UAB, Stavrinos works with a team of epidemiologists, biostatisticians and engineers on trying to reduce or prevent car crashes and injuries that are caused by distracted driving. She talks with InsuranceQuotes.com about her efforts and the challenges her team faces in curtailing this epidemic.

Despina Stavrinos, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, supports the National Transportation Safety Board’s call for a nationwide ban on texting and talking while driving.

InsuranceQuotes.com: What’s your current focus in the area of distracting driving?

Despina Stavrinos: We’ve looked at distracted driving from a number of different perspectives. I’ve looked at distracted driving in teens. A lot of studies out there have looked at what happens after age 18. We looked at that critical age — novice drivers at age 16 — these are the most frequent users of cellphones on the roadway and the most inexperienced drivers on the road. So that combination of those two things can be fatal.

Now we’re looking at commercial truck drivers and distraction. So we have a truck-driving simulator. We’re looking at these same issues among different populations, from the most inexperienced teens to arguably the most experienced drivers on the road — truck drivers — who drive thousands of miles. We’re looking at how distracted driving impacts their performance. Also, how can a cellphone perhaps serve as a protective factor for that population? Talking on the cellphone could be keeping them awake.

What we’re finding across all studies — whether it’s teens, college students, truck drivers — is that text messaging really does tend to impact performance negatively, with far more collisions in the simulator.

InsuranceQuotes.com: What do you think of the National Transportation Safety Board recommendation to ban using electronic devices while driving?

Stavrinos: I’m for it. The reason I say that is I think legislation is an important first step toward combating this distracted-driving problem.

I’ll use an analogy here — it’s sort of like seat belt use. Decades ago, people would get behind the wheel and not buckle up and it was fine. Now, if you get behind the wheel and you don’t put your seat belt on, you just don’t feel right about it. And it’s against the law, so that helped contribute or shift the norms of society.

It’s just like drunk driving. Years ago, drunk driving was tolerated. Now, they (motorists) feel wrong when they get behind the wheel and they’re driving drunk, and there are stricter laws against it.

But legislation isn’t the only piece. We want to emphasize that it’s going to take education, prevention efforts, public health campaigns targeted at not only teens but also college students, adults, professionals — everyone on the road seems to be distracted these days.

InsuranceQuotes.com: So it’s also inexperienced texters?

Stavrinos: I think it’s experienced and inexperienced texters. I’m glad you said that, because a lot of the people in the lab that we study, we ask them, “How well do you think you can text and drive?” Everybody thinks they’re great at it. We just know that simply can’t be true — not with half a million people injured every year and thousands dying due to distracted driving. So everyone can’t be the awesome multitasker they seem to think they are.

InsuranceQuotes.com: What are some of the major differences between drunken driving and distracted driving?

Stavrinos: I think distracted driving is unique in that it’s more pervasive. Technology has just become a part of life. For our teen drivers, what we’re finding is they’ve been texting for nearly a decade and they’ve only been driving for six months. One of our colleagues at Virginia Tech said that for them, the driving is the distraction.

As opposed to drunk driving, I think people come in thinking that people are pretty good at it (distracted driving) because they’ve been texting for so many years. What we know from thousands of research studies and surveillance and injuries that have happened is that you just can’t do it. There’s a limit to human performance, and it’s hard convincing people of that.

InsuranceQuotes.com: How do you go from collecting the data to initiating change?

Stavrinos: That’s the challenge we’re faced with as researchers. We now know the statistics. We know it’s a problem. We know what it can do to your driving performance. Now, what do we do about it?

There are some researchers who have done neuroimaging. They’ve found that brain activity of a distracted person is similar to that of an addict with the same pleasure center in the brain being activated. It’s that idea of rewarding that desire, that addiction to stay connected. It’s going to be really tough to bring about behavioral change, and I think it’s going to take decades, just like it did with drunk driving.

InsuranceQuotes.com: What advice would you have for parents whose teens are going to start driving?

Stavrinos: One thing we’re telling teens is to have a designated texter. We’ve seen that term on Distraction.gov. … Teens actually like this. They’re still able to stay socially connected, but they have a friend text for them in the passenger seat, so that keeps the driver out of it.

But parents need to put the phone down themselves. I think that’s the first step, because their kids are learning so much from them about what’s right and what’s wrong. If they can put the phone down and demonstrate what’s appropriate, that will go a long way.

What one phone call is worth it? What one text is worth it? None — there’s no text or phone call that’s worth your life.