Driving ain't no picnic

Post date: Apr 13, 2012 6:37:41 AM

Am sitting at Chch airport waiting for plane to take me home. Chch airport probably rivals Heathrow for the distance between gates and anything else so although its half an hour till I'm due to board I'll need to leave the comfort of the lounge and walk to the discomfort of the gate!! I feel your sympathy between the gaffaws of laughter!

As Ii'm ponderign life and the universe I come across this article that says eating while driving is more dangerous than drink driving or talking on your cellphone or smoking.

The research, was commissioned by an insurance company after they found 2,000,000 drivers had experienced an accident or near miss while driving one handed. The research found found that driver's reaction times were up to 44 per cent slower than usual if they were trying to eat and pilot a car at the same time. They were also more likely to wander across lanes. This compare with response times for other activities such as:

sipping a drink (22 per cent slower)

trying to send a text message (37.4 per cent slower)

The reaction times of drivers with the legal amount of alcohol in their system (0.08 per cent blood alcohol concentration) were reported to be just 12.5 per cent slower than normal.

I wonder whether there is similar research for pilots given that I am flying at dinner time. I hope they have already eaten.