NORTH LIBERTY - What happens when you're driving along and a car suddenly pulls out in front of you? You most likely swerve to avoid a crash. Now let's say the driver is a teenager on a cell phone, and the car pulls out.

We picked two teenagers from a driver's ed class and got some help from researchers at the University of Iowa's National Advanced Driving simulator.

This is 8th grader Moriah Miller and this is soon-to-be 16-year old Alyssa Winckler. They're taking Ron Bandy's driver's ed class in North Liberty. Both volunteered to ride in NADS, the UI's National Advanced Driving Simulator at Oakdale.

Moriah is getting a special permit to drive to school from her home in rural Solon. Iowa is only one of two states in the country that allows 14-year-old to do that. Her mom, Sara says two older siblings did the same.

But we threw her a curve and asked her to drive while using a cell phone. NADS researchers have surveyed and tested several teens lately on their abilities to drive while talking on a cell.

"There's a section where they're talking on the phone, there's a section where they're not and there's a section where they're having a phone call coming in," said Tim Brown of NADS.

Although teens have fast reaction time their inexperience paired with cell phone conversation makes for a dangerous ride.

"About 27-28 percent of the time they were missing the targets while they were on the cell phone so they were missing over a quarter of the target they were looking for when they were on the cell phone, compared to around 8 percent when they weren't," said Brown.

Moriah had a head-on collision the first time she tried. But the second time, while talking to her mother she's much more cautious and not as engaged in the cell phone conversation.

"I think she learned something and hopefully that limits her cell phone use when she's in the car," said Moriah’s mother.

And then there was Alyssa's drive. Alyssa will get her driver's license in April. She says she never uses the cell while driving and was uncomfortable with it.

But TV9’s Liz Mathis engaged her in conversation, about a prom dress, a summer job and before too long she was going 90 miles an hour and then it happened. A head on crash.

“Teens really haven't learned how to scan the environment effectively to din the information they need to be good drivers," said Brown.

Nads tested novice drivers in a variety of ways, not just with the cell phone. They also surveyed the teen's parents on their driving habits.