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Video: Woman falls into fountain while textingTuesday, 18 January, 2011 10:20 AM WE all know that you shouldn’t text and drive - but texting and walking seems to be equally hazardous if this video is anything to go by.

The traffic version of Willard Scott and Al Roker will be coming soon to the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. Motorists on the state’s two biggest highways will be provided high-tech traffic "forecasts" to alert them about potential bottlenecks before they happen. Using complex computer models that have been said to predict traffic flows with up to 93 percent accuracy, the Turnpike Authority plans to put its new "Traffic Prediction Tool" into use early next year. Drivers would see the forecasts on existing highway message signs or via e-mail or text. Motorists get real-time alerts now, but...

Study finds slightly more accidents in the post texting while driving world California’s ban on texting while driving is supposed to make the roads safer, but it might be having the opposite effect. The non-profit Highway Loss Data Institute compared insurance claims in California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington state before and after their respective bans went into effect. In California and two other states, the rate of collisions actually went up slightly. The Golden State saw a 12 percent bump in accidents among drivers 25 years old and younger. So, what gives? Researchers think drivers are TNDWHFP: Texting ‘N’ Driving...

New Technology Could Help Solve Texting While Driving Problem, Tennessee Attorney Says Morristown, Tennessee (PRWEB) August 4, 2010 – New software that blocks drivers from texting, e-mailing or Web surfing when behind the wheel could play a big role in reducing distracted driving accidents, says Tennessee personal injury attorney Brack Terry. The anti-texting applications, including CellSafety, iZup, tXtBlocker and ZoomSafer, generally use a phone’s GPS to determine when a car is moving and disable a cell phone or texting device when the car is going faster than 5 or 10 mph. The programs also have opt-out features. “These emerging technologies,...

Dr. Frank Ryan, plastic surgeon to Heidi Montag and other celebrities, was sending a Twitter message about his border collie just before his fatal car accident, his ex-girlfriend tells PEOPLE. "He lived up in Malibu on a tiny street and he was texting while driving and he accidentally went over the cliff," Charmaine Blake says. Blake, a celebrity publicist, says Ryan's family was told by investigators that the Tweeting caused the wreck on Monday. The dog, whose name is Jill – Blake's middle name – was in the car at the time of the crash and survived injuries to the...

While baby boomers are still the driving force that controls America’s cultural and spending habits, when it comes to preferred methods of communication, they are pathetically out of the loop. These days, phone calls are “out” and texting is “in,” which can create another area of tension between parents and their 18 to 34 year old millennial offspring, according to the Washington Post. Young people say it’s a control thing – but it’s more likely a new media thing. The view among those 18 to 34-year-olds in the Facebook and Twitter set is that making a phone call is invading...

Alright, texting while driving? Obviously stupid -- but that doesn't stop tons and tons of people from doing it. The Gwent Police department in Wales hopes that its newest PSA film will help deter this bad behavior. In much the same spirit as the drunk driving on prom night films we ourselves had to sit thorough in high school, this film is pretty graphic. Okay, it's actually shockingly graphic -- but we're pretty sure that's the idea. Video is after the break.

A DESPERATE woman texted photos of herself slowly DYING to her mum as she lay suffering on a hospital bed - being ignored by NHS doctors. Tragic Jo Dowling, 25, sent over forty messages to her mother and best friend including pictures of a deadly rash spreading across her body as her life ebbed away. The pretty youngster was diagnosed by her family GP with suspected Meningococcal Septicaemia after developing a purple skin rash and low blood pressure last November. She was rushed to Milton Keynes Hospital where A&E doctors rejected the diagnosis believing instead her illness was a mild...

He's 16 and likes to text his g/f (girlfriend), even when he drives his mom's car. But, OMG (oh my gosh) -- this time it's going to cost him -- or, more likely, his mom. Jason Cordell, of Wyoming, is among the first -- if not the first -- ticketed for driving while texting in West Michigan. Fines and costs total $150 for the offense. She hopes her son learned his lesson. "Except, he don't have a job, so mom's gotta pay the ticket," she said. "So, it's kind of a lesson to me."

ALBANY, Ga. — Spread the word, but don’t text it if you are driving. Two new distracted driver laws take effect in Georgia tomorrow. One law prohibits drivers from “using wireless telecommunications devices for writing, sending or receiving text messages while operating a motor vehicle,” according to the website drivinglaws.org. The other prohibits a driver under 18 years old with a driver permit or a class D license from using a wireless communication device. Breaking either law can result in arrest and a $150 fine with a point put on the license. “This only applies to drivers on the road,”...

Free Speech: President Obama, while addressing college graduates, condemns our access to new media as a subversion of democracy. Is the iPad a threat to democracy or exactly what Thomas Jefferson had in mind? At Hampton University in Virginia on Sunday, the president lamented that in an age of text messaging, the Internet and the iPad, information and its unfettered exchange had become a diversion that was putting a strain on democracy. We are not making this up. The "24/7 media environment," he told the students, "bombards us with all kinds of comments and exposes us to all kinds of...

Welcome to the 21st century, USSC. With the 2009-2010 court term winding down, one of the court cases coming to the Supreme Court is in the area of texting. We have done it so often, sent personal e-mails, surfed the web during company hours, even sent out questionable pictures via online or via the cell phones or blackberrys. The issue in question is on the rights of the employer.

Cols sez u cant txt & drv after 5/5. City Council members approved a texting-while-driving ban last night within Columbus' 225 square miles. It will go into effect May 5 on all streets and highways within the city's boundaries. Although advocates expect Ohio legislators to enact a statewide ban this year, the local law's sponsor said Columbus needed to act to rein in what he called the most-dangerous behind-the-wheel distraction. "We cannot wait any longer," Councilman Andrew J. Ginther said. Columbus joins Cleveland and Toledo among the state's big cities - and Bexley among those in central Ohio - in...

A Davis County juvenile court attorney is seeing at least one case a week involving teenagers as young as the seventh grade who send or ask for nude photographs via texting. Pre-teens and teenagers who take nude photos and text them to friends often do not realize they are abusing themselves, officials say. April is Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Awareness month. Officials in the Top of Utah are hoping parents will become more vigilant and educate their children that sending nude photos or sexually explicit texts is illegal, as well as inappropriate. "Kids are braver and more willing to...

As authorities nationwide warn motorists of the dangers of driving while texting, Florida Keys law enforcement officers add a new caution: Don't try to shave your privates, either. Florida Highway Patrol troopers say a two-vehicle crash Tuesday at Mile Marker 21 on Cudjoe Key was caused by a 37-year-old woman driver who was shaving her bikini area while her ex-husband took the wheel from the passenger seat. "She said she was meeting her boyfriend in Key West and wanted to be ready for the visit," Trooper Gary Dunick said. "If I wasn't there, I wouldn't have believed it. About 10...

The research is overwhelming. Constant e-mail interruptions make you less productive, less creative and – if you’re e-mailing when you’re doing something else – just plain dumb. Within the heart of your company, saboteurs lurk. Disguised as instruments of productivity, they are subverting your staff’s most precious resource: attention. Incessant e-mail alerts, instant messages, buzzing BlackBerrys and cell phones are decimating workplace concentration. The average information worker – basically anyone at a desk – loses 2.1 hours of productivity every day to interruptions and distractions, according to Basex, an IT research and consulting firm

There I was, harmlesly Olympics-watching something called the "men's snowboard parallel giant slalom"—quite a cool event, actually—when some nanny-state advertising broke out. We were suddenly subjected to a commercial telling us not to phone or text while driving. And of all people, it was terminally un-cool Obama Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood inflicting the message and directing us to some website called www.distraction.gov. View video here.

Does the mere act of passing a law prohibiting texting while driving lower accidents? Surprise, surprise. A study shows bans on texting while driving doesn't really lower collision claims. This survey looked at states passing texting bans and compared them to surrounding states. They found no significant difference in collision claims. WATCH REPORT...

Cheating scenario, 1989: There were errant signs. Like the times you phoned the office and it rang and rang ("I was in the conference room," he said), like the matchbooks from places with names like the Candlelight Inn, where you'd never been. There were always plausible explanations. Work lunches! Work trips! Work lipstick! You wondered if you were crazy. There was so much wondering. Months, maybe years of uncertainty. Cheating scenario, 2009: I found your text messages, Jerk boy. Pack your bags. There are so many questions about Tiger Woods's reported affairs. (A cocktail waitress? Really? Have you seen his...

Some places are very innovative in the pursuit of death and tyranny. If it isn't cameras watching our every move, and a permit check for every activity, it is finding ways to recruit the lowest common denominator of "society" as eyes and ears for the state. Just in case you want to be able to hand people over to the government, call it "violence-by-proxy", but you are too cowardly to risk the real-world consequences of doing so openly, the LEOs are anxious to accommodate you. You can now anonymously (so they say) text a tip to the local enforcers.