Texting, Driving Has Killed 16K in US

And it's spiked since 2005

By Polly Davis Doig, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 27, 2010 6:20 PM CDT

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Texting, Driving Has Killed 16K in US — This guy was texting on one cell phone while talking on another when he ended up in a swimming pool in Lockport, NY, on Thursday, July 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, Stephen Wallace)

Sure, you know that distracted driving causes fender-benders, but what about 16,000 deaths? That's how many Americans died because of texting while driving from 2001 to 2007, reports Aol News, with a new study citing a significant spike in the years since 2005. "Distracted driving has reached epidemic proportion. It is a disease that we can control," says one critic of automakers' moves to incorporate dashboard entertainment "hubs."

The study notes that deaths spiked 28% from 2005 to 2008, with fatalities hitting 5,870 that year. "We're back where we were when we started going after drunk drivers," Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said earlier this year.
(More driving while texting stories.)

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