If you are a track and field fan, as I am, you know that Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the fastest human being on earth.  Some say that the man can really fly!

The three-time Olympic gold medalist personally holds the world records in the 100 and 200 meter dashes.  His speedy accomplishments have spawned a knock-off commercial for a well known communication provider that depicts a sprinter texting while running out ahead of his competition.  In the end, the sprinter, despite texting and running at the same time, wins the race without ever running out of his lane.

If only it were that easy in real life when driving.

The safety problem associated with texting while driving is big news in today’s world.  States as well as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are quickly enacting laws to ban the use of cell phones and restrict any type of texting while driving.  Safety advocates are coming out of their seats to reiterate what many studies have revealed – that the combination of texting and driving is profoundly dangerous.

A recent study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute using long-haul truck drivers concluded that when drivers texted while driving, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting.  Though the study did not include passenger vehicles, researchers agree that the findings apply to all drivers.

It’s hard not to agree that the two behaviors are incompatible bedfellows, but very few people have looked at the science behind the issue – which presents a very interesting story.

There are three basic types of distractions: visual, manual and cognitive.  While all driving distractions have some degree of risk, texting is the most dangerous because it involves all three types of distractions.  Drivers who text while driving are guilty of taking their eyes off the road, at least one hand off of the steering wheel, and their focus off of driving.

Research shows that drivers take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting.  At 55 miles per hour, texting drivers will travel the length of a football field, including the end zones, without looking at the road!

If you are bird in flight, you may be able to get away with this risk, since millions of years of evolution have given birds the sharp visual acuity to recognize and react to objects at high speed.  But man was not meant to fly.  Physiologically, man was designed to travel on two legs. Even Usain Bolt, when setting the world speed record, was clocked at a mere 27 miles per hour.  Hardly the requisite speed for flight.

Not all of us can run as fast as Usain.  The average top running speed for most of us is about 14 miles per hour.  When we get behind the wheel of a car, we experience some of the same sensations of flying such as speed and centrifugal force.  But as we begin to move at speeds greater that what we are built to adapt to, it becomes more difficult to react in time to increasing speeds.

Herein lays one of the scientific rubs.  A little phenomenon referred to as the flicker fusion factor separates man from birds when it comes to reaction times and speed.

The flicker fusion factor is a concept in the psychophysics of vision.  It is defined as the frequency at which an intermittent light beam appears to be completely steady to the observer.  Humans have a flicker fusion frequency of 60 cycles per second.  Birds have a much greater frequency allowing them to fly and navigate a forest of trees while chasing their prey at high speeds without the benefit of speed limits, traffic signals, and lane restrictions.

Unlike our eyes, which make up 1% of the total weight of our heads, the eyes of a bird are the largest organ in size relative to their bodies of all animals.  Birds also rely on a much greater peripheral vision than we as humans have, truly providing a bird’s eye view.

If you aren’t feeling totally inferior just yet, a white paper from the National Safety Council illustrates that the human brain cannot multitask.  Our brain can juggle tasks very rapidly, but it can only perform one task at a time.  A person who is texting while driving is overloading their brain requiring divided attention.

As motorists, the faster we drive above our 14 miles per hour speed limit, the more we are incapable of escaping our own physiological limitations that separate ourselves from our high-flying friends.  Add in the extra distraction of texting while driving to a single-tasking brain, and you have a potential deadly mix that is beyond our physical control.

If you are still not convinced, try remembering the last time that you witnessed a bird crashing into a tree!

In the end, it is nothing to be ashamed of.  After all, we are only human.

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