3 Seconds Behind the Wheel

It is human nature to become distracted, but it's a matter of life or death when a person is behind the wheel. "We really do have an attention epidemic," says MIT research scientist Bryan Reimer in Jennifer Boyd's documentary, which centers on a six-month study in which in-car cameras capture the myriad ways in which several participants lose focus. Researchers at the University of Connecticut, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, and the Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center then review the footage and offer their findings. Boyd also solicits input from scientists at Google and Autoliv. Katie, a busy mother, eats, drinks, and scribbles notes, requiring her to remove her hands from the wheel and her eyes from the road. Aiden, a teenager, plays songs on his phone and looks up the lyrics, while Theo smokes cigarettes and plays Pokémon Go. Marianna and Aubrey (Aiden's sister), who text and talk non-stop, say they like to take care of business as quickly as possible, rather than waiting until they've reached their destination. Clodo doesn't make as many calls, but he says his inability to let them go to voicemail is a compulsion. Although Nathan says he never texts, he's on his phone the whole time, scrolling through Instagram and other sites. According to Reimer, the preponderance of cars with manual transmissions in the U.S. adds to the higher rate of distracted driving. While some suggestions are offered for ways to reduce distracted driving, such as turning off cellphone notifications and driving smarter cars, it is clear that multitasking while driving constitutes a very serious danger. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (K. Fennessy)