An accident near New Wilmington served as a reminder to motorists not to text while driving.
State troopers said Clarice Edinger, 19, of Mercer, is lucky to be alive after hitting an 18-wheeler on Mercer-New Wilmington Road Tuesday afternoon. She was texting while driving.
"It's an awful habit to get into," said Pennsylvania State Trooper Roth. "Society runs 24/7, 365 days a year, so everybody is double tasking trying to do too much."
Authorities said most of the accidents they see are because of distracted driving.
"We don't call them accidents anymore. We call them crashes," Roth said. "Because usually there is a cause, and a lot of the cause is distracted driving."
Twenty-one states already ban texting and driving. Ohio is not among them, but Pennsylvania may soon be. The State Senate is expected to vote soon on a measure that would ban the use of all hand held cell phones in the car.
Greg Anderson of All-Star Driving School said he thinks that's a good idea.
"Anything, anything to help prevent people from doing it is a good step forward."
Anderson said part of his job is to teach the dangers of using cell phones while driving.
"We try to emphasize that if you're traveling at 65 miles per hour, you're going to drive a whole football field length without ever looking up in a matter of three seconds," Anderson said.
"When you're behind the wheel, you're in charge of that 3,000 pounds of steel going down the highway, and you need to make sure you're doing that safely," said Trooper Roth.
Edinger was life-flighted to Saint Elizabeth Health Center. Her condition is not being released. The driver of the truck she hit was not injured.
