Texting and driving has been determined to be as deadly a behavior as drinking and driving. In a study done at a Texas university - they found that texting and driving was the cause of 16,000 deaths in the last six years. In the year 2000 only one third of Americans had cell phones - today there is nearly universal ownership.
Too, even as recently as a decade ago - text-messaging was fairly new - and altogether there were only a million sent each month. Today there is an average of 125 million per month.
Consider the following news stories about accidents in which the driver was either sending or receiving a text.
*A teenager was texting a friend when he ran a stop sign and broadsided a car carrying an elderly couple. The woman was killed instantly but the teen was only given 30 days and jail and ordered to pay a $5000 restitution.
*A professional real estate agent using his car as an extended office glanced away from the road 'just long enough to scan a message from his secretary' missed seeing a semi-truck entering the road on his right. He rear-ended the truck and died.
*A police officer on his way to another car accident looked away from the road to text his wife that he'd be late for dinner. In the time it took for him to look away and then back he had run head-on into a compact car carrying 2 sisters. Although the officer survived the accident - both girls died at the scene.
More and more states are banning texting and driving. Unfortunately though - preventing individuals from making this deadly choice requires more than a law on the books.
Greg Baumgartner is a Houston auto accident attorney and the founder of the Baumgartner law firm, which is dedicated to helping personal injury victims seek civil justice. If you would like to speak with Houston car accident lawyers call the Baumgartner firm.
