REALITY CHECK
Driving simulator reveals just how easily using your phone behind the wheel can make you crash
A SHOCKING video has revealed just how easily you can be distracted by looking at your phone while driving.
The footage showed two young motorists using a driving simulator while acting out a number of common tasks on their phones - and the results were disastrous.
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The clip shows the two motorists making a phone call, taking a selfie and responding to text messages while controlling their virtual car.
In one scenario, a female driver tries to text while cruising along the motorway, and immediately ends up veering across into the next lane.
The same driver then takes a selfie and fails to spot a car broken down in the lane up ahead, causing a high-speed crash.
And even driving on quieter streets can be made far more dangerous by using a phone, as the video shows a driver colliding with a road bollard while distracted by their mobile.
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The video was released after a study by found that half of British drivers still admit to using their phone while driving, despite harsh new penalties introduced last year.
Surprisingly, drivers in the 25-34 age bracket were most likely to use their phones behind the wheel, with 77 per cent admitting to the offence.
They replaced drivers in the 18-24 category as the biggest mobile users - likely because young motorists face losing their licence under tougher laws.
As a result of being distracted by their mobile phone, eight per cent of 25-34-year olds said they had crashed their car, 15 per cent had experienced a near-miss and 10 per cent had gone through a red light.
When is it legal to use a mobile phone behind the wheel?
Rob Gwynne-Thomas of the South Wales Police Road Policing Unit explains when you can and can't use a phone in the car:
- Skipping music, declining a call or unlocking your phone: Illegal. Any physical interaction with your phone will be classified as "using it".
- Programming your phone as a sat nav: Illegal. You must set the route before you turn on your car and set off on your journey.
- Using hands-free/Bluetooth kits: Legal. As long as you aren't distracted from focusing on the road.
- Using your phone when the car is stationary. e.g. in traffic or at a red light: Illegal. While the engine is on and you are in control of the car, it is illegal to touch your phone.
- Sitting in the driver's seat with the engine switched off: Legal. As long as you are pulled over to the side of the road in a safe location.
- Using voice commands. e.g. Siri: Legal. But only if you don't need to touch your phone at all to do so, and aren't distracted from driving. If you have to pick up your phone to enable voice commands, it is illegal.
The driving laws you need to know
Ryan Robbins, Senior Human Factors Researcher at TRL, who conducted the driving simulation said: “It is difficult to do two things at once well, but when one of those things is driving it is virtually impossible.
"Driving is a demanding task that can suddenly require all of a driver’s attention when a hazard arises.
"A driver who has been distracted will be slower to anticipate and react to hazards on the road, and that delay can prove fatal.
"Most of us drastically overestimate how well we can drive, even when we are concentrating fully, and the evidence is clear that when we are distracted our driving is considerably worse."