Video: Hard to stop texting b-cuz those msgs are so important!

Consumer Reports News: September 27, 2010 08:08 AM

We attended and covered the 2010 Distracted Driving Summit last week. From countless angles, we showed that numbers point to how dangerous texting is and how government agencies are working to curb this behavior. But what we haven't recently explored is how meaningless most messages are compared to a human life.

Early this year, AT&T had an ad campaign that highlighted how even "short and sweet" messages can be deadly. Comedian Marc Maron makes the point in a more colorful way in this video. (Note: His final line is a bit salty.)

He makes a couple great points. First being, that when texting while driving, no one is driving the car. Hands are off the wheel, eyes are off the road. So, of course this is dangerous.

The other dark-humor takeaway is that texting provides a means to preserve your final words. Sadly, they aren't likely to be worth dying for or quoting in the history books. This reminds of the August tragedy with a celebrity surgeon who was texting and driving minutes before the deadly crash over a cliff. Accidents can happen to anyone, rich, famous, or otherwise.

Whether you like your safety advice straight up, or sweetened with comedy, the risks posed by texting while driving should sober all responsible drivers.

Follow the Cars blog for more on distracted driving and our coverage of the 2010 Distracted Driving Summit.

— Jeff Bartlett

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Video: Hard to stop texting b-cuz those msgs are so important!

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