I’ve seen some dreadful behaviour behind the wheel, and I always get paranoid if there is a driver behind me chatting away on the phone. I hope the message gets across sooner rather than later.

considering how difficult it is to dial a # from your cell while driving (something I do on rare occasion), I am absolutely dumbfounded that someone would attempt the considerably more complex task of texting.

I had a parishioner who would text from his Blackberry during sermons, so I set my phone to easy press send from my pocket and sent him a text message while I was preaching that read: Pay Attention…it was funny to watch his head snap up and the huge grin on his face when he got the message…

If you HAVE to use a cell phone when you’re on the road, pull OFF the road and stop.  THEN use your phone.  If you get a call, find a safe place to pull over and stop.  THEN answer the phone.  No excuses!

A wake up call for us all, who have all (lets admit it…) probably snuck in a txtmsg or a GPS check, even if on the rarest of occasions.

There are interesting Gospel implications in this report.  Twice the Bound Will is noted by the reporter: when the kids knew there were cameras in the car, they still did it; and when Peter Kissinger from AAA said that 20% of people who text while driving do it even though they know it is dangerous.

In response to Kendall’s exhortation: In our youth group a while back we didn’t watch but we discussed (because it had made its way around) that realistic dramatization of the teens dying because of a texting-caused crash put out by that police department in the UK.  It was a challenge to get past the “was it too shocking?” or “was that appropriate?” critiques (both youth and parents) in order to address the real issue.