Texting and driving killed my daughter

Shortly after 9 p.m. on Jan. 22, 2009, Kirsch Kember was driving down a dark road as she texted on her Blackberry.

Kirsch, 28, texted her fiancé, “Where r u?”

Her fiancé replied, “Home. Where r u?”

But Kirsch never answered.

Kirsch’s mother, Joyce Ramirez, believes Kirsch had dropped her cell phone in the car, then unfastened her seat belt and leaned over to retrieve the phone. That’s when Kirsch’s 2008 Mazda MZ3 flipped five times and landed in a neighbor’s yard, ejecting her from the car. Kirsch died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, leaving two children—daughter Blatiney, age 7, and a son Brody, age 4.

Only five days before her daughter’s death, Joyce warned her about the dangers of texting while driving. Joyce, Kirsch, her children and the three children of Kirsch’s brother were leaving a family function. “As soon as she got in the car,” Joyce says, “Kirsch started texting. I told her, ‘Kirsch, if you keep texting and driving, one day you’re gonna kill yourself—or somebody else.’”

• 20% of all accidents in 2008 involved some type of distraction

• Nearly 6,000 people died and more than half ?a million were injured in them

• Drivers under the age of 20 account for the highest proportion of distraction-related ?fatal crashes

• Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.

• Using a cell phone while driving—even hands-free—delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.

Sources: University of Utah, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

A new state law that took effect Aug. 15 is designed to prevent tragedies like Kirsch’s. Now, police can pull over and ticket drivers merely for texting while driving. Now a primary offense and a moving traffic violation, offenders will be fined $175 for the first offense and up to $500 for subsequent offenses.

Louisiana State Police Spokesman Russell Graham believes the law will be effective. “Distracted drivers on our roadways make up the majority of fatal and serious injury crashes throughout Louisiana,” Graham says. “But the awareness that this has become a primary offense has already made people stop texting and driving.”

If Joyce Ramirez discouraged it before, she’s a zealot against it now. “I’m really excited the law was passed,” she says. “I know it won’t bring Kirsch back, but hopefully it will save someone else’s life.”