Title: Driving While Talking
Producer: Emily Halevy
Feed: CWKN #382, April 23, 2008
Time: 1:35
SUGGESTED LEAD: SEVERAL STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT IT’S DANGEROUS TO TALK ON A CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING.  BUT IS THE SOLUTION, AS SOME STATES HAVE MANDATED, HANDS-FREE CELL PHONES?  MAYBE NOT. NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT EVEN WITH BOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL, DRIVERS ON CELL PHONES ARE A LOT LIKE DRUNK DRIVERS.  THAT STORY IN TODAY’S CONNECT WITH KIDS REPORT.
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NATS: talking on phone (:00)

NARR: RIGHT AFTER SCHOOL, PATRICK FERRELL GETS IN HIS CAR AND GETS ON THE PHONE … (:03)

SUPER: Patrick Ferrell, 18 years old (:06)
“I talk on my cell phone all the time when I’m driving but I don’t consider it a big deal because, I mean, you just got to watch for the roads.”

NARR:  BUT THE BRAIN CAN’T REALLY FOCUS ON TWO THINGS AT THE SAME TIME.  A STUDY BY CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY REPORTS THAT JUST TALKING ON THE PHONE REDUCES ACTIVITY IN THE PART OF THE BRAIN RESPONSIBLE FOR DRIVING BY 37 PERCENT. (:15)

SUPER: Cathy Blusiewicz, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist (:28)

“Driving while talking on the cell phone approaches the same disability in terms of driving as driving intoxicated does.”

NARR: AND, SHE SAYS, THE EFFECT IS EVEN WORSE FOR TEENAGERS. (:03)

SOT: Cathy Blusiewicz, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist  (:39)

“Driving is a learned skill- and we become much more automatically proficient at it with the number of years we’ve had driving.  And so we are combining children and adolescents who are brand new drivers.  They don’t have the learned skill- plus they are only giving 50-percent at most attention to it if they are on the phone.”

SUPER: Kendra Rasmussen, 18 years old (:58)
“Yea I get really, like if my friend’s telling me an exciting story, I’ll get really, really excited and if someone pulls out in front of me I’ll be like, I’ll slam on the brakes or whatever.  Because I’ll be paying more attention to my friends than to the road.”

NARR: EXPERTS SAY PARENTS NEED TO SET AN EXAMPLE …  AND JUST AS KIDS NEED ENDLESS REMINDERS TO WEAR A SEATBELT … THEY NEED TO HEAR OVER AND OVER AGAIN: DRIVING AND CELL PHONES DON’T MIX. (:11)

SOT: Cathy Blusiewicz, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist (1:22)

“So that’s a hill to climb for parents and educators to convince them that even though you feel invincible this is like having four beers before you get behind the wheel.”

NARR:  I’M COLLIN SIEDOR, FOR CONNECT WITH KIDS. (:03)

SUGGESTED TAG:   OTHER DISTRACTIONS SUCH AS LISTENING TO THE RADIO, EATING OR TALKING TO ANOTHER PASSENGER CAN ALSO DIVERT A DRIVER’S ATTENTION, BUT EXPERTS SPECULATE NOT NEARLY AS MUCH AS TALKING ON THE PHONE.  FOR MORE INFORMATION LOG ONTO WWW.CONNECTWITHKIDS.COM.