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Chances are most of us have probably experienced being in the car while the driver is texting or responding to an email.  If you have yet to experience it, let me tell you it can lead to some scary moments.  Now there’s a study that can help cement those fears and maybe convince some people to stop texting or emailing while they’re driving.

The study comes out of Car and Driver magazine, who tested the theory by taking two drivers and gave them each a cell phone with full QWERTY keyboards (iPhone and Samsung Alias).  They tested by making them travel at two speeds, 35 and 70 mph, and making them brake when a red light inside the car turned on.  They were testing a control, a BAC of .08, and a texting scenario to determine how many extra feet they required to stop while drunk and texting.  Turns out it required each driver 35 and 46 extra feet while drunk, compared to 9 and 70 feet while texting.

Granted the first (younger, in their 20s) didn’t need nearly as much distance as the older (30s) subject, but it’s still a significant measurement.  Taking the average of the two drunk driving would be worse, but only by one foot, which is a bit scary. 

While you might be able to scoff at the study or only having two subjects, even in those two there was a significant effect shown.  Perhaps a larger study would be a good idea just to prove the theory, but as it stands it’s not the brightest idea to text while driving.

Read [InformationWeek]