MOTORISTS who talk on their cellphones while driving often claim it is no more dangerous than chatting to a passenger.
That has been disproved – and it now turns out that having someone in the car actually improves safety. People drive more carefully if they are carrying passengers, says Chris Lee at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. And the more passengers on board, the safer the driving gets.
Lee concluded this after studying car-accident statistics for a 50-kilometre stretch of freeway in Florida. Writing in Accident Analysis and Prevention, he argues that the responsibility drivers feel towards their…
