PHONES, FOOD RISKY ON ROADS DISTRACTIVE HABITS RIFE IN CALIFORNIA.

Byline: Joseph Giordono Staff Writer

Eating. Reading. Grooming. Talking on the phone.

Those are the top distractions that keep California motorists from watching the road as they spend increasingly more time driving and turning their cars into rolling homes, according to a new survey of 30,000 drivers nationwide.

Of the 1,400 California drivers surveyed, 70 percent admit to eating while driving, 50 percent talk on cell phones, 12 percent apply makeup or shave and 7 percent read a book or newspaper.

And guess what? Sport utility vehicle drivers account for the majority of the problems.

``It's a reflection of our society that we try to do more than just drive when we're on the road,'' Dave Pratt, director of the Progressive Insurance study, said Wednesday. Pratt said the survey was a random phone survey undertaken over three months with the goal of educating drivers about how their actions endanger others on the road.

``Our busy lifestyles combine with more congested roadways to make us become more emotional and preoccupied with other drivers, and is just another way to get distracted and cause accidents.''

The Progressive survey did not attempt to equate driving distractions with crash rates, but it did find significant differences between the attitudes of male and female drivers.

According to the survey, women are more likely than men to shout or curse at other drivers, while men are nearly twice as likely as women to use obscene hand gestures.

Men are also three times more likely than women to describe their own driving as ``aggressive,'' and twice as likely to describe their car as ``sexy.''

SUV drivers ranked at the top of offenders in several categories, including being the most likely people to eat in their car or talk on cell phones.

Not surprisingly, the study found that California drivers over age 55 were the least likely to express anger behind the wheel. Drivers between ages 18 and 24 were the most likely to be talking on a cell phone.

Overall, the California results tracked closely with the national findings, with a slightly higher number of Californians eating and talking on cell phones.

While traffic safety experts say that concentrating on anything but driving can lead to crashes, San Fernando Valley motorists said it's a matter of convenience.

``People have less and less time to do things so they are going to try to combine them and save time,'' said Jose Orozco of Van Nuys. ``I see people on the phone all the time who almost hit other cars, and then wave at them to say 'Sorry.' ''

Transportation officials said increased congestion on freeways and surface streets will make the problem worse. But some drivers disagreed, saying congestion is what leads them to make use of their extra time behind the wheel.

``I don't really think that a lot of the things on that list are that bad, because I do most of them when there is heavy traffic,'' said Cassie Hayes of Woodland Hills, as she sat eating a sandwich in her parked car.

``The cars are moving so slowly anyway that I don't know how much danger it causes to talk on the phone.''

Though some communities have considered banning the use of cell phones while driving or requiring that all car phones be hands-free sets, there is no way to force drivers to pay attention to the road.

``Nobody has banned eating while driving, and certainly nobody can outlaw daydreaming,'' said Stephanie Faul, a spokeswoman for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

``Anything that takes your attention away from what you and other drivers are doing can lead to an accident, but you can't legislate common sense.''

California Highway Patrol officials agree.

``If a driver is talking on a phone or eating, the most likely thing they will do is forget to use a turn signal or slow down too much and impede traffic,'' said Officer Wendy Moore, a CHP spokeswoman.

``Once a driver does something to warrant being stopped, an officer can pull them over. But not just for eating or reading the paper.''

Faul said she has heard stories of drivers doing everything from having sex to disciplining unruly children.

But the use of cell phones is still the most common distraction, she said, pointing to a 1997 study in the New England Journal of Medicine that found cell phone users four times as likely to be involved in a crash than people not using phones.

CAPTION(S):

box

Box: DISTRACTED

Daily News