Send....

All of us are guilty of sending out a text message while being behind the wheel. And we can all probably think of a time that we had a 'close call' with another vehicle because we were texting. For those of you who have not, "CONGRATS!" , but I know John and I are guilty of texting and driving.

States all across the US are working towards banning texting while you are driving. How they will determine you are guilty, besides an accident, I am not sure, but the bill is in the works in North Carolina. I read the following article, where I found this .....

Now that the North Carolina House of Representatives has made it overwhelmingly clear—by a 104 to 5 vote—that texting and emailing while driving should be banned, the bill now heads to the state Senate and then Governor Bev Perdue. If the bill becomes law, anyone caught violating the ban would b fined $100 plus court expenses. Rescue workers and police are among those who would be exempted. An amendment to the bill helps determine when negligence might have occurred if someone was texting when a North Carolina car accident happened.

There are more people texting in North Carolina than ever before. According to the 2008 “Big City Wireless Use Study,” from April 2006 to April 2008, text messaging use increased among Verizon customers by over 600%. The International Wireless Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry says text message sending and receiving increased from 14.4 million in 2000 to 48.1 billion in 2007.

I hope it does pass! I really was indifferent until this morning when a young lady was driving behind me on Bragg. Blvd and almost hit me because she wasn't watching the road! She was too busy looking at her phone. I know that it was her phone because as i started to break, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw her looking down. Then as I heard her breaks screech and she flew past me, finally with both hands on the steering wheel, she had her cellphone in her left hand in the death grip with her steering wheel. Not only did she pass me in the median before coming to a halt, but the car in front of me too! She was moving!

I'm grateful that I am safe and I have decided no more messaging for me while I drive. Whoever it is can wait! I hope that they would prefer that over never being able to talk to me again!