Sauer was an 18-year-old college student. Sauer was driving 80 mph from Utah to Idaho to visit her parents.

Her last status update, "I can't discuss this now. Driving and facebooking is not safe! Haha."

Moments after this update was posted, she crashed her car into a tanker truck that was going 15 mph up a hill and was killed instantly.

Source: Today

On Dec. 1, 2010, two-year-old Calli Ann Murray and her mother were walking home from playing at a local park. The two reached an intersection and as they began to cross hand-in-hand, a young driver texting on her cell phone barreled down the street. 

"With her attention on her phone instead of the road, the driver struck Calli and Ling with her car," the U.S. Department of Transportation's blog Fastlane explains.

Calli was gone. Ling was critically injured.

Source: Fastlane

There was a storm on the morning of Sept. 22, 2006. Reggie Shaw told himself to drive cautiously so he could avoid hydroplaning, instead Shaw texted his girlfriend.

Shaw caused another car to spin out of control killing two scientists, James A. Furfaro, 38, and Keith P. Odell, 50.

Phone records show that Shaw had been text-messaging from the time he left home until the time of the accident.

Shaw’s 2006 crash and his emotional testimony before the Utah Legislature sparked the 2009 passage of the toughest texting-while-driving law in the nation.

Source: TextResponsibly.org and HJ News

Alex Brown, a high school student, was driving above the speed limit and was not wearing a seatbelt on the morning of Nov. 10, 2009.

Cell phone records indicate that Alex had just replied to a text message moments before losing control of her car. Alex rolled her truck and was ejected from the vehicle. She was killed.

Source: The Silver Streak (Randall High School's Student Newspaper)

A college student in Colorado with a flawless driving record, Alexander Heit was driving on a neighborhood road when he responded to a text from a friend.

According to a witness who saw the accident, he had his head down. His car drifted across the road into the left lane, causing an oncoming car to pull over in alarm. At the last moment, Heit saw what had happened and jerked the wheel to correct his mistake. He over-corrected, however, and his car swerved off the road and rolled.

Heit lost control of his car and plunged over an embankment. He survived the crash, but died later at a nearby hospital.

The photo on the right is the last message Heit ever sent. 

Heather's story has been highlighted on the U.S. Department of Transportation's blog, Fast Lane.

While driving home from work as she had done hundreds of times, Heather approached a bend in the road. But she was texting, saw the bend too late, and crashed through the guardrail. Heather was killed instantly.

To help others learn about the dangers of distracted driving, the Washington State Department of Licensing, together with Heather’s parents, Dan and Wendy, produced a video and submitted it to our “Faces of Distracted Driving” series.

Source: TXTResponsibly.org

It was terrible news.

Lois' son, John T. Gordon a police officer, was riding his motorcycle on Ohio State Route 4 when a young man driving a truck, swerved into oncoming traffic. John was hit and killed instantly.

It was later revealed that the driver of the truck was using his cell phone at the time of the crash.

Lois tells the U.S. Department of Transportation blog, Fastlane:

Before our son was killed, I never thought about people using their cell phones while driving.  But now, I see it everywhere,” said Lois. “We're missing the birthdays, the holidays, our son walking his daughter down the aisle. And for what? A telephone?

As Lois says, "You may get away with it four or five times, ten times, or fifty times--and not get hurt or hurt someone else--but there's going to be a day when you don't."

Source: Fastlane

Here is her story:

My name is Amanda and I have a story to tell … My 19-year-old sister was killed May 16th, 2009 in a car accident. She was texting me when her truck entered the median. She over-corrected and flipped end-over-end several times before being ejected. The guilt I feel every day is a hard load to carry. I have felt the desire to get public education out there since her accident this year.

It is especially hard on my mom, not only because she lost a child but my sister’s accident happened the same day my dad passed away 9 years prior.

Amanda has been given opportunities to speak at high schools and universities in Kansas and Missouri to tell her sister's story and warn of the dangers of texting while driving.

Source: TxtResponsibly.org

How To Keep Your Emails And Texts Secret >