Gas and Oil Prices Hit Record Highs
ROBERTS: Breaking news this morning, oil cracks $109 a barrel for the first time. Our Ali Velshi, at the business update desk, is tracking the markets this morning. What's behind it all, Ali?</s>VELSHI: What's behind me is this barrel that I have to keep changing the numbers on. $109.20 is what we've hit this morning. Wow, those are some crazy numbers. There are a few things behind this. One of it -- one of the things is that there is some speculation, a lot of hedge funds investing in oil, and that's not directly related to supply and demand, which is what we're used to seeing in oil. We have a lot of people telling us that oil should be nowhere near these prices. But there are a lot of people talking about the increase in demand from China and India which is really causing, you know, us to pay more for oil but nobody thinks it should be at these levels. $109.10, let me see what that translate to in gasoline prices. We're looking at $3.227 now as a national average for unleaded self- serve gasoline in the United States. As high as $3.60 on average in Hawaii and around those prices in California, although some people have seen stations well above $4. One station $5. $3 about the average in New Jersey. There are a number of experts who are saying expect to see $3.50 and $3.75 for gasoline by spring. At that point, once we hit those levels, demand should curtail enough that prices for gas would actually go down. We know that the refineries are operating at lower capacity than they have been for some time until gas prices actually catch up to these increases. So the bottom line is everyone who is betting on gas prices is betting that they're going up. That's what we're looking at right now, $109.20 for oil, almost $3.23 a gallon for gasoline -- John.</s>ROBERTS: All right, Ali Velshi for us this morning. Let's hope it doesn't go any higher today. Ali, thanks -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: Well, we all know that driving while yapping on the cell phone is not a good idea. But what about if you're using a hands-free device? A new study says that they also give drivers a fall sense of safety. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Atlanta. You know, we talked about this before. You know, a lot of states say or cities say that you cannot drive holding your cell phone but it's OK as long as you have a hands-free device.</s>GUPTA: Yes. You know, it's interesting that scientists at Carnegie-Mellon think even the hands-free device may be a problem. On full disclosure, I use a hands-free device as well. But the question was simply talking on the phone, simply paying attention to someone on the other end of the line, what does that do to you? What does it do to your ability to drive? They actually took 29 volunteers. They put them in the simulator, they're not actually driving a car but simulating that and had them carry on a conversation with a hands-free device. Now, they got 92 percent of the questions being asked right, which is important because it meant they were focusing on the conversation, but they also did other things in the sense of weaving in and out of lanes, they actually, one person actually hit a guardrail. And this is something that scientists wanted to figure out what exactly was happening inside their brain when they were talking on the phone. So, let me take you on a tour here, if you will, inside the brain, and give you a sense of what the brain looked like in someone who wasn't distracted versus distracted. Take a look. This is what it looks like driving without distraction, this is the parietal and occipital lobes back here that I'm circling. See how much orange is in there? Now, when you're actually on the phone listening to the cell phone device there's about a 37 percent, about 40 percent less increase in activation over there and that's important because with less activation there was less attention, if you will, to the driving. That gives you a sense of what exactly was happening inside the brain when someone was on one of the hands-free devices -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: It's very interesting because you see especially in Manhattan as well drivers through the city, you know, taxi drivers and drivers of car services have those Bluetooths in their ear constantly and everyone zipping down the road. The other thing, too, is that you have to actually dial the phone to make these calls and you're, of course, looking down when you do that. Really, I mean, even though these hands-free devices aren't going anywhere is there any way to make driving safer?</s>GUPTA: You bring up a good point. So, hands free versus an actual phone, both require some physical activity to dial or answer the phone, for example. The other thing is, you know, besides phones and a lot of people say look, there's been no decrease in the overall number of traffic accidents since some of these hands-free laws have come into place. You got about 42,000 deaths every year still from traffic accidents, that number stayed about the same, but you do have a lot of people who do other things, Kiran, that require more physical activity, grooming themselves, for example, or eating while driving, those are obviously much more dangerous.</s>CHETRY: Well, all right, you know, as you said in full disclosure, you use one, too. It's modern age of getting things done, right?</s>GUPTA: Yes. You don't have a moment to spare when you have the conversations getting your work done, absolutely.</s>CHETRY: Sanjay, good to see you. Thanks.</s>GUPTA: All right. Kiran, thank you.</s>ROBERTS: With many people calling on him to step down, Eliot Spitzer be using his resignation to keep himself out of jail? We'll ask our legal analyst Sunny Hostin. That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.