"I can't even walk and text at the same time, so I can't imagine texting and driving," said Emily, a 10th-grader at Doane Academy, in Burlington.
Emily's right to be leery about getting behind the wheel, given how many people text and drive. Just about every time I get into a car, I notice people TWD or chatting on hand-held cell phones. I'm constantly amazed at how people don't even try to hide it.
I'm not going to lie. I gab on my phone while driving, too.
But I never, ever text when the car's in motion. I text only when I'm at a stop light or stuck in traffic. (Please don't e-mail me and tell me how wrong that is. I'm working on it.)
Experts say that the problem is worse among drivers with the least experience.
A study by AAA revealed that nearly half of all young people ages 16 to 24 admitted to texting while driving.
OMG. Although young people might be willing to admit to a researcher that they text and drive, getting them to stop with all the LOLs or IMHOs is hard.
Entrepreneur Joel Magaziner, who used to own several area car dealerships, was riding with his college-age son once when he glanced over and noticed his son texting while driving.
"He veered off and almost hit the median strip," recalled Magaziner, who now runs the Magaziner Group, in Cherry Hill. "I said, 'Yo, Chase! What are you doing? Don't do that!' A minute and a half later, he did the same thing."
That's not surprising, since habits are hard to break. Magaziner was worried. He knew that he couldn't always be with his son to remind him not to text and drive, and that even being with him wasn't enough to stop him.
