Special Report: Texting While Driving

The city of Austin has already passed a ban on text messaging while driving, and there are calls for similar bans across the country. FOX 7’s Rudy Koski explains how researchers and civil rights advocates from Central Texas are weighing in on the national debate.

According to the Austin Police Department, there have been 14,000 traffic wrecks in the past 12 months. Distraction and inattention was cited as a contributing factor in 4,440 of those wrecks. Of those, police say that 139 of those cases involved cell phones.

Russell Henk, a researcher with the Texas Transportation Institute says that texting while driving can be as dangerous as drunk driving. He says that association created a new word, intexication.

A recent survey of 18,000 high school students revealed that about half admit to talking on a cell phone while driving and a little less say they text message from behind the wheel.

Some, however, oppose outright bans. Dotty Griffith of the ACLU says there is a potential for police profiling leading to illegal stops and searches.

"Well it is one more case of the Nanny State having the ability to stick its nose in to any and everybody's business for virtually no reason," Griffith.