Posted on July 26, 2010 by Fiona Hilliard

When you’re driving home from work or you’re renting a car, on your way to a match, do you ever find yourself so engrossed in the drama on the pitch that you find yourself shouting at the radio?

What if I said you shouldn’t be listening to the radio at all? You’d probably tell me to SSHHHHH!

Do you realise that by keeping up with the latest score you might just be putting others and yourself at risk?

According to a new study, the risk of accidents increases if a listener has an emotional attachment to a certain team or an active interest in the outcome of a match.

In fact, reactions can be slowed by up to 20 per cent - so say  scientists at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL).  Apparently this means a six metre stopping time if a car is travelling at 70mph. 

The report explains: “To put this into context, this increase in distance travelled is 10 per cent further than the additional stopping distance when driving with a blood alcohol level at the UK legal limit (80mg/ml).

There were almost twice the  number of incidents of hard breaking at the last minute when motorists were listening to sports commentary.

The report concluded: “This suggests that the motorists were not paying enough attention to the road and had to make late decision to respond to the conditions and drivers on the road around them.”

Researchers found that most motorists didn’t consider listening to sport as the same type of distraction as arguing in the car or handling stress.

Commenting, TRL’s Dr Nick Reed said: “At particularly tense times such as penalty shoot out it may be safer to find a place to park and enjoy the action without risking an accident.”

The study looked at the reactions of 18 participants aged 25-45 (nine of whom were male and nine were female).