Turn off your phone and put it away when you get in the car. You'll seriously up your odds of a longer and better life.
No, don't switch to a headset; even though some states now mandate them as safer, on the hands-free theory, Washington is the most recent to completely ban driving while holding a cell phone to your ear. Five states and D.C. have nixed it.
But here's the thing, hands-free devices don't necessarily make it safer for you to talk while driving. There's still the brain-free problem. A new study shows that chatting with someone you can't see uses up spatial attention, essential for driving well. Talking, especially the subconscious act of thinking about what you're going to say (even if it doesn't come out so thoughtfully) interferes with your visual attention even more than listening does. So it should be no surprise that driving while phoning gives you a four times higher crash risk than driving with the phone turned off and there only for emergencies.
At all hours of the day and night, 6 percent of American drivers are talking on cell phones. That's another reason to put yours away, someone has to be alert around the people who are talking to their spouses on the phone, watching their kids in the backseat and reaching for their soy latte at the same time.
Believe it or not, whole generations of people used to drive around quite happily without talking on the phone. Try it. You'll like it.
