I think both are dangerous. In many states, texthing while driving is illegal. I wouldn't ride with her, either.

Neither is safe while driving. Just drive!

Texting while driving is crazy dangerous. You have to take your eyes off the road to read and type.
I do talk while I drive, but I have hands free installed in my car. I push a button on my dash and say "call work". It dials for me and broadcasts through the speakers. I never look at my phone.

I hope someone comes up with a way to disable texting while driving (although could be a major inconvenience for passengers)

But I also wish we could come up with a way to end drunk driving...but hey marijuanna legalization is happening...whole new set of problems on the horizon. I digress.

In WA state texting and/or talking on the phone will get you a $124 ticket.

Texting is so much worse than just talking on the phone. Texting invoves: your brain, eyes, both hands. I don't see how anyone could think it was a good idea to do that while driving. Perhaps you should have your daughter watch the story about the young girl who died because she was texting back and forth with her sister while driving. The sister has to live with the fact that reading her text made her younger sister crash and die.

Both (texting and talking on a hand-held phone) are illegal here. You're smart not to ride in the car with your dd.

It isn't. I don't get it - grownups should have better judgement, but I see people holding cell phones up to their ears or glancing down while they text all the time.

I get away from them as soon as I'm able. Accidents looking for a place to happen.

Your DD is not only endangering her life, but all the lives of the innocent people sharing the road with her. That is just disgusting in someone that is 34 years old. I would refuse to drive with her, and harsh as it may be I would call the authorities if I were in the car and she was texting. Amazing!

In most states it is illegal to drive and text. See link below. You might want to share it with her.

You might want to also send her a link to texting vehicular homicide!

I think that the public should start reporting texting drivers just as they would report seeing someone drinking and driving or driving erratically.Offenses of Texting and Driving should be treated no less than a DUI.

I would pull over and report your daughter in a heartbeat, (if she was in a state banning texting) or ask that a passenger report her. Someone needs to get her off the road! Please tell her I said so. Maybe she will stop and think and investigate just how foolish she is to endanger others on the road trying to swerve and miss her.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jan 2013 Map Texting Bans.

One of our recent clients was severely injured by a woman texting and driving who blew through an intersection, t-boning client's vehicle. Another recent case involved a 16 year old on the phone when she slammed into the back of our client, who was slowing for a Stop sign. If she doesn't kill herself, or someone else, maybe a hefty lawsuit will deter her when she does injure someone.

Ditto Sleeperblues.

Texting while driving is illegal in PA, and we have PSAs on TV about it. I sure hope your daughter never has children in the car with her. Actually, I hope she never leaves her driveway.

I got a video on Facebook that was taken from a State Troopers dash cam. You can see how quickly your life can change by taking your eyes of the road for a split second.

I didn't know how to post it here but it is from Native Citizens News Network/practice safe driving and has links for.. www.drivingtips.org and roadsafeamerica.org It is a powerful video and should make anyone think twice!!!

To me it is on the same level as driving under the influence you are not fully alert to the road and what is happening around you.
I will NOT ride with someone that texts while driving period if they insist on putting their own life in danger and those of innocents around them they will have to live with that but I think too highly of my life.
When I see someone driving and texting and invariably driving erratically I do dial 911 and they will come out and stop them and give them a hefty fine. One of my best friends did that recently when she saw 2 cars on the interstate causing problems and they were both texting totally unaware of the problem. The 911 operator kept her on the phone as they dispatched police she directed them to the cars and both were stopped and forced to get off the road. I think if you can't behave more responsibly your driving rights should be removed just like repeat offenders with drinking.

I know not too long ago here in PA (York area??) a woman killed a PennDot worker. They got her wireless records and proved she was texting at the time of accident.
She went to jail for vehicular manslaughter. I believe she was over 40 yrs old.

Bonnie, if she has this problem I would only ride with her if she gave me her phone. She can have it back when we get there.
I also think reporting her might be a much needed wake-up call.

Bonnie, ask her what her final wishes are for her funeral.

She's just plain nuts if she thinks texting while driving is safe.

If she were my daughter, I'd report her to authorities before she kills someone. Yes, it was around here some babe was texting , putting on lipstick and ran into a construction worker killing him. She's in jail where she belongs.

I only recently started texting, and there is NO way I could be in control of my car and text at the same time. It's illegal to text while driving in my state, and I hope they are enforcing it aggressively. I was almost run off the road once by a young woman texting, and then another almost ran over me in a shopping center parking lot.

Your daughter is a freaking IDIOT. I really do hope she stops before she kills someone.

NOBODY needs to talk on the phone while driving. Some companies give their employees phones that cut the signal when they sense motion over 5 MPH.

IMO every car should have a device to do interfere with the signal when the car is moving.

There is nothing so important that it can't wait until a car is stopped. If the conversation IS that important, it's worth stopping for!

Unfortunately, we are relying on people like Bonnie's DD to 'police' themselves. THEY AREN'T DOING IT!

Too bad about passengers who can't use their cells in a car. The 'inconvenience' is similar to seat belts.

thanks for all the feedback - I've made up my mind and will get the phone from her when I know she have the kids in the car - I am starting to have nightmares about all of this... A young woman was killed last week due to heave fog - I heard from the dispatcher of the tow truck she had been decapitated. They are still checking to see if anything else was wrong with the driver... Again, thanks.

My phone has a voice feature. I could maybe see using that, sparingly. But I agree with all the others that this just isnt safe. Ask her if she wants her kids to be doing that someday. They will do what their mom does so she needs to set the example now. Maybe she could do what I do. I put my phone on silent and put it in the glove compartment when I get in the car. That way, I have no idea if I'm getting a phone call or a text and I don't miss it.

With Siri on the iPhone, you can text using your voice. Which makes it just as safe as talking on the phone and driving. Which means not safe at all! (And the studies I've read show that it doesn't matter at all whether a phone is hands-free or hand-held, it's the conversation with someone not in the car that makes it unsafe.)

Personally, I'd be much happier to have a bunch of people driving while under the influence of marijuana than under the influence of alcohol, or while talking/texting on a phone. People using marijuana usually drive unusually slow and are statistically much safer than drunk drivers.

I had a friend and neighbor killed head on t&d never knew what hit her.

There's a rational argument to be made for the talking on the phone in a car. I still say, unless there's a reason, SHUT UP AND DRIVE. To go off banning the phone in a vehicle leaving radio, CD, even VIDEOS fer cryin' out loud doesn't make a lot of sense but it shows that people pick one item, much like MADD does and rather than looking to improve the safety of driving, it's to concentrate on a myopic few of the perceived problem. This says nothing about putting on makeup, eating, drinking, reading papers and the myriad of other distractions that go on and seem perfectly fine to so many people. Hypocritical in my view.

To refuse to ride with her is brave and I salute you for taking a stand! Oh, and of course it's asinine to say texting is safer than talking on a phone.

AFAIC it's time to start confiscating cell phones that are misused. Using it in a vehicle illegally, why isn't it pulled? For that matter, the car too? They try to pull it if they smell a beer on your breath, why not when proven you're breaking the law in the vehicle other ways? And if there's kids in there and they're texting? Why aren't those kids hauled off to social services? They're endangering the kids lives. But somehow that's not a danger to most people until the kids are injured or die.

Your freaking facebook page will wait. You can tweet like a twit when you get off the road. I don't care that you can post something in a traffic jam. It just proves that "smart" phones don't require smart operators.

Instead of these "diamond" lanes, I propose setting up a texting lane. If you're going to text while driving, you drive in the texting lane along with all the other texters. Then you get what you give. If you crash that way, you take out another texter rather than someone innocent.

Texting while driving is just too dangerous. I think you're doing the right thing to refuse to ride with her. I hope you can get her to pay attention to the fact that not only could she cause a serious accident, she could be charged with a crime. It's kind of amazing how people who would normally not do anything that might land them in jail are willing to text while driving.

I do talk on my phone sometimes while driving, but, like salgal, I have hands-free installed. My voice command button is on my steering wheel so my hands stay on that. My phone doesn't even come out of my purse.

I have seen that some people are trying to ban all use of cell phones in cars, including hands free. Using hands free is no different than talking to a passenger or singing along with the radio. I constantly see people eating, putting on makeup, brushing their hair, you name it.

BTW, if the person is rational this tidbit alone might get them to rethink:

"...Texting...involves manual, visual, and cognitive distraction simultaneously. Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds. At 55 mph, that's like driving the length of an entire football field, blindfolded..."

Are they willing to have someone else drive the length of a football field with their eyes closed, at 55 mph with their kids on board?

Here is a link that might be useful: Distraction.Gov

Using hands free is no different than talking to a passenger or singing along with the radio.

Maybe that's true for some people, but not for others. It sure isn't true for me. I tell my passengers I can listen to their conversation just fine, and respond briefly, but anything more involved from me will have to wait until we're at our destination. I can sing along with the radio without a problem because I can do it automatically, mindlessly, but something that requires actual thinking, like telling a story, distracts me.

I often wish movie characters wouldn't spend so much time looking at their passenger while driving. Have you noticed it? An actor is behind the wheel, often driving fast, and then turns his head to talk to his passenger--for too many seconds. I want to tell him, "Look at the road!" I hope young drivers don't get the message that it's okay to take your eyes off the road like that.

Anyone that thinks texting and drive is an OK thing to do should not have a driver's license and is too stupid to operate a motor vehicle! They are "an idiot every single day"! (TV quote)

I'm sorry but that type of thinking makes me wonder if the brain cells are even functioning correctly!

Susan, I agree. It's not true statistically that talking on a hands-free cell phone is the same as talking to a passenger in the car. Hands-free or hands-on cell phone danger is the same.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hands-free cell phone use no safer than hands-on

I might read a text at a red light but that's the most I would do. Certainly not reading/texting while the car is moving. I had to make a phone call the other day while I was driving home from work and I pulled over to do it.

I had a really scary experience a couple of years ago before I had a GPS. I was in a new area and glanced down at a print out of driving directions to see where to turn, and I nearly hit a van of kids. Luckily it was pulling up to a red light so I was only going about 5 mph and I stopped in time but still...taught me a valuable lesson about how easy it is to get distracted for just a second even with something related to driving, and it makes all the difference.

We can't prevent people from reading printed word, putting on makeup, or talking to passengers. We CAN make cars with gizmo's to cancel cell phone reception when the car is in motion. (The gizmo needs to be part of the car, not on the phone itself. It needs to be built in, not something that can be removed or disengaged.)

Some will find that an inconvenience. Tough. It would save lives...and money spent on hospital and rehab costs. It could lower your insurance premium.

I know I heard a news story this past week about a line of cars (which ones??) that will have such an ability; the car detects movement and disables the texting capabilities. I would bet that within 5 years many cars will be built this way. I know there are apps to disable texting, but the kids would be easily able to turn that off.

Believe me, it's not just kids t&d! My neighbor, 50 years old and a paramedic/nurse, texts and drives ALL THE TIME, verified by her 8-year old son. She nearly hit me while I was walking my dogs and when I confronted her about it, she lied and said I was a liar. Her 8-year old son piped up and said, "mom texts and drives all the time"!

I don't blame you. I wouldn't drive with her either. I will pull over
to. make a call or txt. It's as bad as DWI .

Yesterday about 4 blocks from me a 19 year old girl was changing something on her ipod while driving. A moment of inattention has put a 70 year old man who was walking home from the gym into the hospital with a broken leg, broken ribs and head lacerations. He usually drives to and from the gym but because it was such a beautiful day yesterday he decided to walk.

He wasn't even on the street - he was walking down the sidewalk. She has been charged with undue care and attention and driving while using a technical device (her ipod) which is illegal here.