DO YOU TEXT & DRIVE?

Nearly 100 New York-area teenagers have been killed in the past five years because drivers were texting behind the wheel, a new study by Sen. Chuck Schumer shows.
"There are simply too many teenagers being killed in tragic accidents that arevery often preventable," Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday.

Some 95 teens died in texting-related crashes in the city and on Long Island, he said.

One in five drivers admits to occasionally texting while driving, a 2008 National Insurance study found.

Almost one in five car crashes nationwide happened last year because the driver was texting or using a cell phone, federal data show, and the drivers are disproportionately young.

Most texting drivers take their eyes off the road for about five seconds, according to a University of Utah study, and college students are eight times more likely to crash while texting than other drivers.

In 2007, five recent high school graduates outside upstate Rochester were killed after the teenage driver sent a text message and lost control of the car.

Schumer wants Congress to pass the ALERT Driving Act, which would force states to pass laws banning texting while driving.

New York's ban was signed by Gov. Paterson this year and will go into effect Nov. 1. Seventeen other states ban texting for all drivers and another nine for new drivers only.

The proposed federal law would give states two years to meet federal requirements or take away 25% of their federal highway funding.

Schumer said he didn't expect people to stop texting the day after the legislation passes. He believes it will slowly take hold in the same way that most people eventually complied with seat-belt laws.

"It's a lot better than doing nothing," said Schumer.