Rena Oakley, a senior at SKHS, sits in her car waiting to finally exit the hectic senior lot. She watches as the parade of buses go by and slowly, one by one, each student’s car finally squeezes out of the parking lot onto Columbia Street. While she waits she reaches down for her phone and sees that she received a new message.

“When I’m in the senior lot, I text due to the long wait to get out.” Oakley admitted.

When Oakley finally manages to escape to head home, her phone vibrates with another new text message from a friend. She peers down and picks up her phone, placing it on the wheel to quickly type a response.

Each year about 21 percent of fatal car crashes involving teens between the ages of 16 and 19 are the result of cell phone use behind the wheel. That number is predicted to go up four percent every year. Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia also discovered that traffic crashes are the largest cause of death among teens, killing about 5,000 each year.

Despite these alarming numbers many teens fail to see the danger of texting while driving, believing that they could never get in an accident or that they pay close attention to the road while they text.

“For  me texting while I drive is like typing on a keyboard without looking at the computer,” Oakley said, “There isn’t a particular reason [why I text], it’s out of habit.”

Oakley has the cell phone, Envy Two, with a full keyboard, which she says allows her to just feel around for the keys while keeping her eyes on the road.

According to a study conducted in 2003 by the University of Utah, texting while driving is just as dangerous if not more than drinking and driving.

A recent study done by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows that drivers who text and drive are 23 times more likely to crash. In 2007, nearly 1,000 crashes involving 16-17 year olds had to do with some sort of cell phone use and 50 percent of drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 admit to texting while driving.

“I try hard not to, but  yes, I do [text],” said another SKHS senior Jeralyne Hawkesly.  “The biggest  reason I don’t just ignore the text is because most of the time the text message is telling me where I’m going, who I’m picking up, what to get at the store, or something along those lines.”

In July, 2008 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger passed a law in California, which prohibits California drivers from diving with a cell phone in their hands. If a driver was caught violating this law they would have to pay a 20 dollar fine and 50 dollars for every subsequent ticket.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s own wife, Maria Shriver could not even follow the law. In October 2009, Shriver was seen driving while on her cell phone.  On Schwarzenegger’s twitter page, he said,“thanks for bringing her violations to my attention. There’s going to be swift action.”  There has been no further information on what Shriver’s consequences will be.

Schwarzenegger also claims that if any of his daughters violate the California state law, then their cars and phones will be taken away.

Even though a vast majority of teens do seem to text while they drive, there is a great deal of teens that do not, and see the dangers. Often these students say they just ignore the text or have a passenger answer.

“I think it’s irresponsible because there is no way I would have control of the car if I was texting,” senior Matt Phipps said.     Phipps said he does make one exception. “I only do it at stop signs.”

As of right now, in Rhode Island no law has been created that makes texting while driving illegal. In 19 other states including the District of Columbia, texting while driving is banned for all ages and eight other states prohibit texting for drivers under the age of 18 only.

Hawksley obviously understands what risks she is putting herself in when she does text on the road.

“Yes, taking your attention away from driving for any reason is potentially dangerous. Although I admit to doing it, doesn’t mean I condone it,” said Hawksley. “Not a very smart risk to take if you ask me.”

Congress is now trying to pass a nationwide texting while driving bill, which would be put in effect by 2013. Each state would have two years to enact their own laws and if they do not do so, much like the drunken driving laws, each state will lose 25 percent of their federal highway funds.

  In the new bill violators will have to pay a fine of $50 for the first offense, $75 for the second offense and $100 for each subsequent offense. Similar to the RI seatbelt   Law a police officer cannot pull over a driver for just texting or phone use alone, but if a driver is pulled over for speeding or erratically driving he can be cited for using the phone and then receive a ticket.

Another senior from SKHS, Chris Pinkerton said, “I personally have a hard enough time driving and texting separately. Put them together and bad things are bound to happen.”

Many students seem to have all sorts of different opinions about texting while driving.

“I think it’s a distraction to drivers. As an operator of a motor vehicle you need to be constantly aware of the number of events that are going on around you,” said SKHS’s own Officer Monty. “The presence of the phone where your eyes have to actually leave the road is a distraction that could end up with traffic consequences.”