Please don't. I'm begging you.

No one had to teach me not to write a letter or read a book while driving. Maybe it was plain old common sense. So what's the change? Because we can write teensy tiny letters or read teensy tiny words on our handhelds, it doesn't count as reading and writing behind the wheel? Because it's such a small screen, we can still keep our eyes on the road? All ages of both genders, with many or few miles of driving experience, play this frightening game.

Is it because people are so addicted to electronic connection that caution and care are thrown to the wind regardless of what they're involved in? Maybe they're desperate for real communication with actual voice and sight that they'll do anything to get it, even if it's not quite personal. And dangerous.

On May 8 a local teen awoke to her sweet sixteen birthday. The next day, she passed her driver's exam.  The day after, all grown up with the freedom of a driver's license, she pulled directly into the path of an oncoming semi tractor-trailer. She left this earth. A long un-sent text message, chronicled at the time of the accident, was found on her mobile phone.  

Will her heartbroken friends learn from her tragic and costly lesson? Please don't text and drive. Please.