By Jessica Shreindl

news@joplinglobe.com

Student Jannet Salgado recently had a close call while driving on her university’s campus. A friend in the car behind her was text messaging and almost hit her.

“I was shaking my fist at her, laughing, as she drove by me,” said Salgado, a senior pre-med biochemistry major at Missouri Southern State University.

According to a recent study by Students Against Destructive Decisions and Liberty Mutual, instant and text messaging while driving are among the biggest distractions for teens behind the wheel. In a national survey of more than 900 teens with driver licenses from 26 high schools, 37 percent of them rated instant or text messaging while driving as “extremely” or “very” distracting.

Salgado’s friend was actually text messaging one of their mutual friends, MSSU student Kimberly Forest, a junior business-management major. Forest says she also text messages while she drives.

“I only text like one letter at a time though,” she said. “I’ll text one letter then look up and then text another one and look up so I’m watching the road. It’s not like I’m looking down for the whole message.”

But Lt. John Hotz, assistant director of the public information division for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, says all it takes is a second for an accident to occur.

“If you’re traveling 60 miles per hour and you look down for one second, you’ve covered 88 feet in that one second,” Hotz said. “A lot of things can happen in that amount of time. And we know that people who are texting are usually distracted for more than one second at a time.”

General cell-phone use led to 12 fatal crashes, 516 personal injuries and 1,175 damages to property in Missouri alone in 2007, says Hotz. But it’s hard to know exactly how many of those where caused by text messaging.

“Unless there’s somebody there that sees somebody texting, it’s hard to prove,” Hotz said.

Missouri senators recently endorsed a law that would ban text messaging while driving. Offenders could be fined up to $200 dollars and have their license suspended.

Cpl. Chuck Niess, with the Joplin Police Department, says he’s not sure the ban would work.

“I think it would help some but some people don’t pay attention to the rules no matter what,” he said. “I think it would be very hard to catch them.”

Niess thinks a public education campaign on the dangers of text messaging while driving could help cut down on accidents.

So what can concerned parents do to prevent their teens from text messaging while driving?

SADD and Liberty Mutual have set forth the following recommendations:

• Know your state’s Graduated Driver License laws and restrictions, including unsupervised driving, time of day, and passengers in the car, and enforce them. The Governors Highway Safety Association provides a description of each state’s laws at www.statehighwaysafety.org.

• Set family rules about driving and outline clear consequences for breaking the rules. Liberty Mutual and SADD suggest some rules if they are not covered by your state laws: No use of alcohol or other drugs; no cell phone use, including text messaging; limit or restrict friends in the car without an adult; no driving after 10 p.m.; keep two hands on the wheel; no distractions while driving, including eating, changing CDs, handling iPods and putting on makeup.

• Enforce consequences if a family rule is broken. The SADD/Liberty Mutual studies show that parental enforcement bolsters safe driving habits. More than half (52 percent) of teens who say their parents are unlikely to follow through on a consequence if they break a driving law report they talk on a cell phone while driving, compared to only 36 percent of teens who believe their parents would indeed penalize them.

• Do as you say. Exhibit behaviors in the car that you would like your teen to emulate. And, don’t engage in behaviors you have established as off limits for your teen. While young people say overwhelmingly their parents are or will be the biggest influence on how they drive, almost two thirds (62 percent) of high-school teens say their parents talk on a cell phone while driving; almost half (48 percent) say their parents speed; and almost a third (31 percent) say their parents don’t wear a safety belt.

• Sign a teen driving contract. SADD’s Contract for Life can be found at www.sadd.org/contract.htm.