Cell phones ‘age’ teen drivers: Study

Talking on a cell phone makes you drive like a retiree — even if you’re only a teen, a new study shows. A report from the University of Utah says when motorists between 18 and 25 talk on cell phones, they drive like elderly people — moving and reacting more slowly and increasing their risk of accidents.

‘‘If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, his reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver,’’ said David Strayer, a University of Utah psychology professor and principal author of the study. ‘‘It’s like instant aging.’’And it doesn’t matter whether the phone is hand-held or handsfree, he said.

Any activity requiring a driver to ‘‘actively be part of a conversation’’ likely will impair driving abilities, Strayer said.

In fact, motorists who talk on cell phones are more impaired than drunken drivers, said the study published in Human Factors. —PTI