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Driver Distraction Paper

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Numerous research studies have addressed driver distraction. Most of these studies address issues relating to the distraction effects of cellular phones [27]. A review of the literature published over the past seventeen years was conducted. The search was limited to articles published in English between February 13, 1997 to December 30, 2014, involving young novice drivers, middle aged and fairly experienced drivers, old drivers. To be comprehensive with the literature I have conducted a very broad search using such keywords along with the fixed keyword of driver distraction: texting messaging, young driver, accident, old age driver, psychological effect etc. I initially found 27 articles that directly or indirectly assessed the …show more content…
Distraction can be defined by inattention while driving or delay in the recognition of an event, obstacle, yielding sign, or a car in the next lane, all of which may lead to an accident. After reviewing papers with the keyword driver distraction it is found that there are mainly three kinds of distraction which can leads to the accidents: human factors, vehicle-related factors, and environmental factors [26]. However, I will mainly focus on the first two factors of distraction.
Firstly, Human factors distraction may include cell phone conversation [1, 3, 6] either with a hand free device or a hand held device or texting using touch screen devices, keypad [16, 21] or a text to speech interface [21]. Human factors may also include emotional state of the person. One study also shows that the type of conversation can affect driver performance [19, 23].
Secondly, distraction can be due to in-vehicle entertainment system [13]. In-vehicle entertainment system often include touch screen user interface and offer navigation, cell phone connectivity, ability to respond to emails [14] and control over the vehicle’s music system (such as the radio). Using this feature may require a lot of driver attention, such as while putting address into the navigation system, or responding to a call or a

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