Engineering and Technology Journal 39 (12) (2021) 1806-1813 Engineering and Technology Journal Journal homepage: https://etj.uotechnology.edu.iq 1806 http://doi.org/10.30684/etj.v39i12.2132 Received 23 April 2021; Accepted 05 July 2021; Available online 25 December 2021 2412-0758/©Publishing rights belongs to University of Technology’s Press, Baghdad, Iraq. This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). The Effect Of Mobile Phone Use While Driving On Response Time: Driving Simulator Study Hussein S. Mutar*, Ahmed S. Abduljabbar, Ammar A. Mohammed University of Technology-Iraq, Alsina’a street, 10066 Baghdad, Iraq. *Corresponding author Email: bce.19.28@grad.uotechnology.edu.iq HIGHLIGHTS ABSTRACT • Using driving simulator to assess mobile phones distraction on driving performance. • The response time is increased while using smart phones while driving. • The results indicate that the response time increases with task difficulty. • Young participants are less affected when compared with older people. Mobile phone use is one of the most common daily tasks and this is normal, however, this task could be problematic while driving. The use of mobile phones while driving has become a major cause of road accidents and poses a threat to public health. This study investigated the effect of mobile phone usage while driving on response time, as it investigated four mobile phone tasks (hands-free calling, hand calls, reading text messages, and sending text messages) in addition to basic driving. A total of 42 participants, ranging in age from (19 to 55), with a mean age (mean = 33.14, SD = 10.26) participated in the driving simulation at the University of Technology and all participants performed five tasks. The participants had to interact with voice commands by performing the throttle maneuver. The results concluded with a delay in response, which means an increase in cognitive reaction time when using a mobile phone compared to basic driving. It has also been found that the response time increases with the age of drivers. ARTICLE INFO Handling editor: Wasan I. Khalil Keywords: Driving Simulator Mobile Phone Use Hand-Held Mobile Hands-Free Mobile Reading text messages Sending text messages 1. Introduction Using a mobile phone while driving has become very common and is one of the main causes of traffic accidents all over the world [1, 2]. With the great advancement in the field of communication technologies installed in cars or portable that can be introduced to vehicles, mobile phones are receiving great attention concerning their direct impact on driving performance and safety for road users[3]. Although most countries banned the use of mobile phones while driving a car, many drivers still use it while driving. The mobile phone contributes to the dispersion of drivers and distraction from basic driving tasks. In the United States of America, a study (number = 3265) found that 48% of dispersed drivers were caused by their distraction because they were busy with the mobile phone while driving[4]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO)[5], the percentage of people who text while driving is still very high around the world: In the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, respectively, 27 percent, 45 percent, and 16.67 percent. And according to Lambert and Regan[6] More than half of drivers admitted to sending or reading (1–5) text messages a week while driving. The increased use of mobile phones while driving has increased the risk of car accidents, as the increase in traffic accidents is closely linked to the increase in mobile phone users while driving. For example, according to the [7]NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2019), cell phones were involved in 401 fatal accidents in the United States in 2017 (14 percent of all fatal distraction-affected crashes). With reference to[2]the World Health Organization (WHO) report, drivers who use their cell phones while driving are four times more likely to have accidents than drivers who do not use their cell phones while driving. In general, many studies have been conducted on the effect of mobile phone use on driver performance, some for calls and others for text messages. This paper deals with a hypothetical examination of a number of drivers using a driving simulator to find out the effect that using a mobile phone for hand-held calls, hands-free calls, reading and sending text messages, on the response time of drivers as a result of the distraction caused by the distraction of the mobile phone. According to a study[8], talking on the phone while driving causes a drop in condition comprehension and a pause in reacting to incidents that arise in the driving world, which may lead to incidents. One