Title: Texting While Driving
Producer: Emily Halevy
Feed: CWKN #385, May 14, 2008
Time: 1:26
SUGGESTED LEAD: THREE SECONDS. ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION, THAT’S ALL THE TIME IT TAKES FOR A DRIVER TO HAVE THEIR EYES OFF THE ROAD AND GET INTO A CAR ACCIDENT.  AND THAT RAISES A QUESTION:  WITH MORE KIDS THAN EVER TEXTING ON THEIR CELL PHONES WHILE THEY’RE DRIVING…  HOW MANY MORE CRASHES WILL THERE BE, HOW MANY MORE KIDS WILL GET HURT?  CONNECT WITH KIDS HAS MORE.
<<PKG>>

NARR: RICHARD WAS DRIVING WHEN HE SENT HIS GIRLFRIEND A TEXT MESSAGE.

HE THEN CROSSED THE MEDIAN AND COLLIDED HEAD-ON WITH A CEMENT TRUCK. (:08)

SUPER: Richard Tatum, 18 years old (:08)
“I don’t even remember hitting the truck because I was looking down at my phone when I hit it.”

NARR: HIS CAR WAS TOTALED: HE BARELY SURVIVED. (:03)

SOT: Richard Tatum, 18 years old (:16)
“It crushed my pelvis and hip and my knee.  I tore two ligaments and chipped a piece of my knee cap off.”

NARR: ACCORDING TO A RECENT TRIPLE-A SURVEY, 46 PERCENT OF TEENS ADMIT TO TEXT MESSAGING WHILE DRIVING. (:06)

SOT: Richard Tatum, 18 years old (:30)
“You just look down text, look up drive, look down text- and it’s not hard to do I mean, so everybody does it.”

NARR: TWO STATES: WASHINGTON AND NEW JERSEY HAVE MADE DRIVING WHILE TEXTING ILLEGAL.  SIXTEEN MORE ARE TRYING TO PASS SIMILAR LEGISLATION.

EXPERTS SAY, PARENTS SHOULD MAKE IT CLEAR:  TEENS CAN USE THE CELL PHONE ORTHE CAR, BUT NOT BOTH. (:15)

SUPER: Ted Waldbart, Safe America Foundation (:52)
“With the teens you have to send the message that you cannot do this while you are driving, and if I find out you are doing it, than you are not going to be driving.”

NARR: AS FOR RICHARD-HE’S NOW WALKING AND DRIVING, BUT HE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME. (:05)

SUPER: Linda Tatum, Richard’s Mother (1:04)
“He now has the hip of a 47-year-old, at 17-years-old, because of the cartilage damage and everything.  And you know, he is going to have arthritis, and he’s just not going to be able to do the things that he could do before.”

SOT: Richard Tatum, 18 years old (1:18)
“I don’t text when I drive anymore, it’s not worth breaking my good hip. (laugh)”

NARR: I’M COLLIN SIEDOR, FOR CONNECT WITH KIDS. (:03)

SUGGESTED TAG:  RESEARCH FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH SHOWS DRIVING WHILE TALKING ON THE CELL PHONE IS EQUIVALENT TO A POINT-ZERO-EIGHT BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL.