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The study, which was conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), found that texting while driving increased the risk of an accident by more than 23 times.
"Text messaging on a cell phone was associated with the highest risk of all cell phone related tasks," says the VTTI. "The tasks that draw the driver's eyes away from the forward roadway were those with the highest risk."
The VTTI also found that text messaging leads drivers eyes to be off the road an average of 4.6 seconds over a six-second interval.
"This equates to a driver traveling the length of a football field (100 yards) at 55 miles per hour without looking at the roadway," the study said.
"Talking/listening to a cell phone allowed drivers to maintain eyes on the road and were not associated with an increased safety risk to nearly the same degree," it said.
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