NT S wrth risking a lyf

In case you aren't a practitioner of texting as a second language, the headline reads "no text is worth risking a life," the sage advice given to the Transportation Committee of the Iowa House on Wednesday by an expert witness who knows about texting.

16-year old Kate Moore of Des Moines won the LG 2009 National Texting Competition and was runner-up in a world competition, Moore also received her driver's license earlier this month.

The legislature is considering two measures to ban or limit cell phone use while driving. Moore told the committee that she has never texted while driving and tells her friends that she doesn't want them texting while she's riding with them.

"Knowing the hot gossip around school that your best friend just texted you can just wait," she said. "No text is worth risking a life."

Here is where it gets tricky. While everyone can agree that texting while driving is risky behavior and should be avoided. If texting is banned, where is the line drawn? At composing text messages? At reading text messages? Using the Internet on cell phones? Talking on cell phones? Limiting use to hands-free devices?

That's the line that legislators are trying to define, as well as the penalties for texting while driving. Under one of the measures, it would be a misdemeanor. If it contributes to a personal injury accident, it could be a Class D felony that could send someone to prison for five years.

This is clearly an issue where technology has progressed faster than our society can cope. Our cars are more technologically advanced, require less attention from the driver to operate and we have all sorts of gadgets to distract us from driving.

This is a recipie for disaster, as we all know. Even driving undistracted, accidents can and do occur in the flash of an eye.

So what's the answer? One can argue that banning cell phones in cars is a safety issue. Often cell phones are used to call for help when vehicles break down or when accidents occur.

But texting while driving needs to go away.