Sydney, June 2 (IANS) Never drive while you are stressed. It can be distracting and dangerous, says a new study.
Ides Wong from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety studied 75 drivers aged 17-47 to investigate the negative impact anxiety had on drivers.
‘Being anxious makes drivers unable to fully focus their attention on the road, particularly in urban areas, where there are plenty of distractions and when time pressured,’ said Wong.
She said urban environments also posed an increased threat because there were significantly more distractions such as billboards and increased traffic levels to deal with.
‘This study found that highly anxious drivers had significantly longer response times as tasks increased in difficulty,’ she said.
‘This indicates that highly anxious drivers maintain accuracy at the expense of response time.’
Wong said what was of most concern about this was that drivers with slower response times were at greater risk of being involved in an accident.
‘Attention lapses have been shown to be a leading cause of traffic crashes,’ she said.
‘For example, crash statistics… revealed inattention was believed to be a major contributing factor in as many as 60 percent of fatal crashes in 2008,’ she said.
‘What this study aims to do is help drivers recognise the importance of avoiding driving while under stress,’ Wong said, according to a university press release.
