KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Distracted drivers can be maddening, but worst of all, distracted driving can be deadly.
A teenaged driver died in Cass County Thursday in what the Highway Patrol said was a case of texting while driving.
Related: Harrisonville High School mourns loss of teen killed in texting while driving crash
Distracted driving is a problem police officers see every day. When they pull over drivers, they get some familiar, but not very good, excuses.
While cell phones have become an essential piece of day-to-day life, their misuse in the car causes an average of nine deaths and 1,060 injuries every day.
“Very difficult. Our mother was a remarkable and accomplished woman,” said John Larimer, whose mother was killed in a texting crash.
Loretta Larimer, 72, was driving with her granddaughter when Rebecca Gannon, who was 16 at the time, lost control of her car and smashed into them.
“Both Britney and my mother saw the vehicle coming out of control, so mom had pulled completely off the road into grass and still hit her,” her son said.
FOX 4’s Eric Burke went out on patrol with Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Collin Stosberg. Sgt.
Stosberg sees drivers on the road everyday with only one hand on the steering wheel because the other hand is holding a phone.
Stopping distracted driving is a priority for those on patrol.
“Our colonel has said, distracted driving is a priority to go out and enforce any kind of violation,” said Sgt. Stosberg.
In the video (click on the video player above), you can see a woman clearly looking at her phone. When Sgt. Stosberg pulls her over, she is clueless.
“I noticed you were texting and driving,” Sgt. Stosberg said to her. The woman responded: “Oh my god. You scared me. I was wondering, ‘What am I doing?'”
Sgt. Stosberg explained the dangers of texting and driving and the woman quickly corrected him that she wasn’t texting.
She said she was reading a message.
“Reading? Reading a message. Same thing, just so you know,” the sergeant explained to her.
Another driver- a man- also split hairs about distracted driving.
“Oh I wasn’t texting,” he said.
“What were you doing?” Sgt. Stosberg asked.
“I was checking my email.”
In the eyes of law enforcement, it’s all the same.
“Seems like one out of every six or seven people are on their phone,”
In a quest to educate drivers of the dangers of distracted driving, organizations have created unique methods to curb texting and other distractions behind the wheel. Some are listed below.
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