Many people take offense if someone tells them to be quiet or stop talking. Or they get annoyed if someone stops listening halfway through a conversation with them.
While that is understandable, sometimes there are good reasons behind a person wanting to end that conversation. One is if they are driving.
Sometimes talking is not appropriate while driving
Most drivers talk to the passengers they have in the car with them. When a driver doesn’t engage, such as can be the case with some taxi drivers, people often think them rude. But a driver’s number one priority is to drive safely. It’s a duty they owe to themselves, the public and the very passengers they might be cutting off.
Talking to passengers is one of the many forms of distraction that drivers face. Most of the time they manage to balance it well enough with paying attention to the road and reaching their destination without incident. Yet, sometimes, they don’t, and they either cause a crash or fail to avoid one because of the distraction their conversation caused.
One thing at a time is best
Despite some people’s claims to be proficient multi-taskers, research shows the brain can only focus on one thing at a time. In the example of a driver talking to their passenger, their brain is switching between the conversation and the road. It is not doing both things simultaneously.
Even a second of a driver’s brain being focused on something other than the road could be enough for a crash to occur. Therefore, if you have a collision with another driver who has a passenger, it is worth considering whether a conversation between them led to the crash.
