Reading and even writing text messages whilst driving is surprisingly common. The BBC One Show invited BVI researchers onto an airfield just outside Bristol to help perform an experiment to demonstrate the dangers of texting while driving.

A mobile eye tracker was used which revealed that drivers navigating the makeshift course spent as many as two seconds looking away from the road while replying to a text. The same drivers were then asked to wear a customised pair of ‘black-out’ goggles that simulated the degree of inattention measured on previous laps. The ‘black-out’ goggles caused carnage on the air-field and, in doing so, provided viewers with a stark reminder to keep their phones in their pockets when on the road.