A study found that motorists using a headset to talk will concentrate on an area of road four times smaller than usual, making it harder to spot hazards. Driving while talking on a hands-free phone can be just as distracting as talking on a hand-held mobile, warns new research. The study showed that the area of the road that hands-free motorists concentrate on is up to four times smaller than the average road user, meaning they often fail to spot and react to hazards – even when directly in front of them. Researchers say the findings disprove the popular belief that the use of a hands-free phone is less distracting than using a hand-held mobile. And their study could have ‚far-reaching‘ implications on the use and perception of hands-free phones while driving. The research, published in the journal Transportation Research, found that drivers having conversations which sparked their visual imagination detected fewer road hazards than those who didn’t. […]