think about it. how often when you're driving do you see people checking their phones? let's be honest, how often do you do it yourself while behind the wheel? and it's not just texting. drivers are on snap chat, instagram, facebook, youtube and now the newest sensation, pokemon go. you name it. drivers are checking their phones on cities to rural communities like the one. looking at your phone to read one text is the equivalent of driving the football field at 55 miles an hour with your eyes off the road. one text increases your chances of crashing by at least six times of one text can have deadly consequences.

>> she was a perfect mom. she loved kids, i love kids, it was the high of life. we were settled, loving what we did, raising a money. and in the blink of an eye our world changed. >> on june 30, 2014, andrea boeve took her darling girls, then 11 months and 4 years old, for a bike ride right near their home in minnesota. her husband matt was doing some drags work on the family's farm. >> aid two-way radio that kept in contact with one of my guys to keep me safe. and all of a sudden, over the two-way, mom. matt, where are you? and she said, andrea and the girls were in an accident. >> 911. what's your emergency? >> there is a girl hit by a car. >> what was that like and you see claire?

>> it was something i'll never forget. i was told she was okay. and i came in and she was sedated. and she had a breathing tube down her throat to keep her lung from collapsing. and it just it was shock. complete shock. it was horrible. no parent should have to go through that. >> what do you tell girls? >> for any parent to go to their 4-year-old and their 11-month-old and say, mommy is in heaven is something, that's again hardest part. let's just say that mom is no longer with us. >> a driver, chris weber, a south dakota national guardsman and father of two, admitted he decided to make a payment on his phone. he says he looked down at his phone and heard a thud. he said he never saw andrea and the girls. >> i wanted to get on my phone.

i was distracted. >> i just knew he was on his phone. my gut told me that even before i got to the scene. i knew it. and it is tough. >> it is so preventable. we are addicted to our phones. anything can happen. and that anything happened to us. >> every day in the united states, more than eight people are killed and more than 1,000 are injured, in crash that's are reported to involve distracted driving. according to the national highway traffic safety administration. distracted driving includes activities such as talking on a cell phone, texting and eating. a reason study found that two out of three teens admit to using apps while driving and that study was done before pokemon go. to get a sense of what it is like to drive distracted, we headed to the university of alabama at birmingham's distracted driving research lab. >> my friends are so fun on

facebook. oh, my gosh. and i wanted a friend of mine had this great picture i wanted to show you. so i would have been in another lane just by looking at friends. >> this she is the last director. >> many of the times when you are engaging in social media while driving, you were taking your eyes off the road for long glances. over two seconds that significantly let you increase your crash risk. >> matt's girls, claire and mallory, are now 6 and 3. >> you must think about her a lot, matt. because you could have lost all your girls. >> it is so preventable. sth yeah. a blink of an eye, you think you can take your eye off the road to read a text, check an app. but a split second took my wife. and almost took my children. my girls no longer have a mom. i don't have a wife, a soul

mate. it is just something that didn't need to happen and it did. >> here's a dirty little secret. it is not just teens who are checking their phones while driving. we parents are doing it too. in a recent survey, 56% of parents admitted checking their mobile devices behind the wheel. how can we convince our kids not to do it if we're doing it ourselves? >> that's a horrible, horrible feeling to deal with. and the guilt that comes with it is awful. and it is nothing that i want anyone to have to go through. or experience in any way. >> laura maher visits the site near brooklyn, where her life changed two years ago. the mother of two and hair salon owner was driving along highway 6. she pulled over, texted a client whose house she was heading to and started driving again. >> i think i had gotten three

miles down the road when she texted me back. and it dinged three times. and i don't think i even read the whole thing. i kind of skimmed and it set it down. when i looked up, there he was. i slammed on my brakes and i went to swerve. and unfortunately, i clipped the, it was falling and that was it. >> a cross marks the place where 75-year-old marvin beck of nearby malcolm, iowa, was ejected from his tractor. >> i held him in my arms and called 911 his sons ended up coming and took him out of my arms and i think i called 911 again at that point. i was in the police car when we found out that he didn't make it, what was that like? >> it is going to be impossibly

difficult no matter what. >> i don't think there is an hour that goes by that i don't think about it in some way. >> haira receivlaura received a jail sense. she is in the process of which community service and sharing her story of the dangers behind the wheel. >> even if i can save one kid from not doing it. or one person. i think that is a little bit of comfort. open people's eyes and make them realize we need change way we're driving. >> especially when you think about how many people including parents text or post on social media while driving. >> we're finding estimates before half of all parents say they drive distracted. so that's not really helping for where we're trying to get in terms of shifting the societal norms. if mom and dad are doing it, it

must be okay. >> we were on our way home from a baseball game and my husband was driving and my friend textsed me. >> she texted you from the car? >> behind me. >> while i was driving and i was in the passenger seat and i wouldn't answer. when i saw her later, she said, i know, i didn't even think. and my attitude is don't do it just because it's me. i don't want you to do it at all because it's dangerous. >> sometimes the kids are the ones telling their parents to stop. >> my mom is a big facebooker. so every single second, she's always on her phone texting. and i always tell her, mom, your kids are in the car. it is one thing if it is just you. my little sister is with us. can you just stop for a couple minutes? >> the president and general manager of road atlanta in brazelton, georgia, admits he, too, has texted while driving. >> what do you do with your son?

you've had conversations with him. has he seen you to it? what does he say? >> he absolutely has. and now he's a new driver. so we've had all the appropriate parent conversations of do as i say, not as i do. and he reminds me of all the responsibilities involved with driving and i hope he will pay attention to my advice as i try to lead it as well. >> it is amazing how many people had say, i don't think there's one person who hasn't been in a car with someone who has been distracted at one point or another in their life. >> does it help in some way? you feel like you're getting an important message out? >> i think so. yeah. i think this is a little bit my therapy. >> this any message to the beck family, if they could hear any message. >> i'm just so sorry. there is nothing i would ever, i mean, i understand.

the i can't imagine, i've lost people in my life and i'm just sorry. that's the hardest part to live with. that i took somebody's father and somebody's husband and somebody's grandfather, you know. >> up next, why are we so instinctively wired to pick up our phone even when we're behind the wheel? >> multitasking is an illusion. 31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38.39, 40, 41, 42...44. crap. who loses one shoe?

hmm...no dog today. grace, let's do this, baby girl. say goodbye to the gang. elizabeth wants to come too. ok. elizabeth can come. but that's all. come on. sorry guys. pump seven. sure. that'll be $36. rewards card? no. hey, you know what? give me one of those lottery tickets too. the big one. hey, what's up? hey! so, i think i am going to try and skip out early and try to catch a few innings of danny's game. i'm sure he'd love that. hey, what do you want to eat tonight?

would you eat a mazzoni's? ugh, don't make me. alright, that's ok. i'm good with whatever. mommy, elizabeth wants some ice cream. well, if she's a good girl maybe we can get some on the way home. oh, erin called. she left a message with the other broker. ok, so now what? now we wait! oh. well, don't worry, because we are about to become filthy rich anyway. finally. yeah, the lottery is over 200 million dollars. i got a ticket, so i think we're good. oh, why didn't i think of that? that's what you have me for.

most people will admit that doing this while driving is dangerous and yet they do it any way. experts say it is because of the addictive nature of these devices and how our brain instinctively responds. it is like being at a cocktail party. when someone taps you on the shoulder, you need to turn around. the same is true when you hear a ping. you need to look even when you're behind the wheel. >> before the accident that changed laura's life, the mother of two tried to ignore the ping alerted her to an incoming text but ultimately couldn't resist it. >> it is not like i sat in my car and thought i'm going on drive distracted and hit somebody today. that's not what i was out to do. >> looking at that text would cause her to crash into a

tractor here in rural iowa, taking life of a 75-year-old man. >> the reason why she answered that ping is because she felt compulsed or felt a compulsion to answer it. >> dr. david greenfield with the center of internet and technology addiction, said most white house have done the same thing. >> i think that conservatively, 60 to 70% of people are doing with it some frequency. what does that mean? it means that it is just russian roulette. that some of those people will have accidents. some of those people will be killed. and some of those people are going to kill or hurt somebody else. so is that a huge problem? i think it is. do i think it is a public health issue? yes, i do. >> our smartphones are affecting our brains without us even knowing it. when we their ping of an incoming text, social media

update or e-mail, our brains get a hit of don't mean. it leads to an increase in arousal, affecting the circuitry in our brains and the expectation of a reward, who texted me, who tagged me on social media, leads to a higher burst of dopamine than the reward itself. >> it is the same as the rewards for eating, pleasure from sex and pro creation, drugs and alcohol. this is as old as time. >> when our brains are in an elevated dopamine state, caused by the expectation of a text or status update, the activated brain center shuts down access to another part of the brain. the pre frontal cortex where it occurs. >> the part of our brain says how important is this? is it worth dying for or killing for? the answer would be no. if you have less access to that part of your brain, you're not

really using your judgment. >> while i may seem safer, using a hands-free can be just as dangerous. using a handheld or hands-free device while driving resulted in a slower reaction time than if you were legally drunk. simply put, we can't focus 100% of our attention on two things at once. >> when we're online, in whatever portal we're using, i don't think we're operating in the present. we are out to lunch to some sentence. >> our brains also have a way of fooling us. every time we look at social media or text or do anything else while behind the wheel and nothing bad happens, we think we will be safe if we do it again. >> why is it so darn hard to put the phone down? to not check? to ignore the ping? >> why would you put something down that's pleasurable? why would you not do something that lights up a part of your

brain that is similar to when you have sex? >> because you know it is dangerous? >> and you know what? my message is, you have to know that. you have to know that it is bigger than you. that's really the bottom line. we like to think we're the master of our destiny. that's not true. >> but technology which caused the problem could also help solve the problem. >> the perfect problem for a technological solution. it is like a disease and a vaccine. >> scott tibbits of boulder, colorado, is on a mission to prevent families from ever getting the call that their loved ones died as a result of distracted driving. >> i'm over here, a scientist and an engineer. boy, scratch the surface, more than anything, a father. >> back in 2008 after he arrived for a business meeting, he learned the person he was to meet with had been killed only hours earlier by a driver who was allegedly texting behind the

wheel. >> there is just this cathartic empathy for the tragedy of it. and having just driven through the intersection, and then the entrepreneur kicks in. wow, maybe there's a solution. maybe it is technical. maybe there is an invention that could save a lot of lives. >> his answer is called groove. a little device that plugs into your car under the steering wheel. it alerts your mobile phone provider to hold all e-mails, texts and social media updates and prevents you from sending messages and posting on social media while social media while driving. >> you go into the super airplane mode it, goes away. all of a sudden, they're not on the phone any more. then somebody tries to text them, and it is blocked and the person trying to text them gets a message that says scott is driving right now, he'll get the text when he stops, when he is at the end of the trip. turn off the key, ten seconds later, and the messages come in. >> the wireless providers have

their own answers, free apps, which silence incoming messages, sending an auto reply that you are driving. the apps also prevent you from texting when the car is moving, but not all apps block access to social networking. >> once for that driver. >> jesse hogard for cell control demonstrates his company's answer to distracted driving. it is called drive irchl.d. >> it is solar powered, right underneath the rearview mirror. >> i'm going to send you a message. hey, jesse, where are you. very important message to send while driving, right. >> that's the thing. >> exactly. >> at a cost of 1$129, what it can do is automatically detect who is driving and who is not. >> with that in place in our app on the phone or devices that you want to protect in the vehicle,

we can restrict access to applications on the phone, either throughout the entire vehicle for all passengers or for just the driver. >> okay, so jesse, i'm going to text you and see what happens, all right. want to meet for dinner? another very important text. especially if you know someone is driving. when i texted you those important messages, i got that. jesse is currently driving. will respond to your am he is sage when the trip ends. >> you're not being ignored and that your friend, your kid, your colleague, is being responsible. >> jesse then moves into the passenger seat. during a drive, along the track at road atlanta in brazellton georgia. >> i can still use my phone, my facebook page, my facebook feed, and look at it like i normally would. whereas earlier when i tried to do that in the driver's seat, it blocked me out.

>> what about the teens who figure out a way for you not to work while i'm driving so i can check facebook or snap chat. >> so we have a room full of engineers whose jobs is to sit around and think like savvy 16 and 17 year olds, but not only that, stay a few steps ahead. >> it may be the technology that lets drivers enjoy all the distractions they want. technology, which removes the need for any drivers at all. >> autonomous vehicles are the new technology that will solve that problem, because if you have an autonomous vehicle that doesn't require you to attend, then you can talk on the phone and do whatever you want. >> up next, beyond technology, what else can stop drivers dangerously driving while distracted.

do you want to watch your favorite show? no, it doesn't start until two. ok, if you need me i'll be outside. stupids. hey, did you want me to pick anything up? you know what? i'll eat mazzoni's, i don't care. hey...alright! love you. love you. mommy, i forgot my crystal bracelet! that's ok, sweetheart. it will still be there when we get back. everyone loves the picture i posted of you.

at&t reminds you, it can wait.

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beyond technology, what else can be done to convince people to stop checking these while behind the wheel. the nation's capitol, plus the

district of columbia make it a crime to use a hand-held device while driving and people break the laws all the time. what changes behavior, experts believe, is seeing the pain caused by distracted driving. the unthinkable. parents lay their daughter to rest after their friends were drinking, driving and texting while behind the wheel. but thankfully, this isn't real life. it is a program called choices. every choice comes with a price. created by the acadia sheriff's office in louisiana. nearly 200 high school students participate in a mock crash and act out the consequences afterward. the video is then shown in high schools throughout the community. >> we're going read you your rights. okay, what's going on. >> it sounds so simple.

don't use your phone while driving. seeing the consequences helps drive the point home. >> the 360 experience. >> in long island, new york, another approach to get the message out. students take a ride on the distracted driving simulator and see how quickly things can go wrong. >> it may seem like i'm sending a text to my friend, no big deal. next thing you know, you're swerving into the person next to you. >> what was the moment of impact like for you. >> that could be real life. >> a captivated audience, more than 400 high school seniors watch the latest video from at&t's it can wait. a mom looks at a photo on facebook before the tragic crash. >> it wasn't until i watched the video and i finally saw like how much damage you could do to a

person. >> do you think wow, that could have been my friends, people i know. >> yeah, definitely. >> the amazing was the silence in the room. the videos played, they held a great weight on everyone. >> it was my friend who got hurt, i would be beside myself. >> for matt, who lost his wife, and laura mauer, who guild a grandfather while glancing at a tech, speaking up can save lives. >> it can wait. there is nothing worth it. nothing that important. and realize that it's our lives on the hand. >> andrea is always trying to make things better. she is a fix errer or doer. that's why i'm doing this, to get the word out. distracted driving is a major offense. it is something that can change lives. it changed ours. >> raising awareness, no doubt, is something we all can do to

try to stop distracted driving. for more information on our series and this critical issue, please go to cnn.com sla/distra driving. i'm kelly wallace. top of the hour, 3:00 p.m. eastern, i'm poppy harlow. we begin with politics. after a week long standoff, the on again off again relationship appears to be on again for the time being. the latest truce forged last night in paul ryan's home state of wisconsin, where trump offered a belated and perhaps less than full throated endorsement of the house speaker, ending speculation whether it would happen. >> in our shared mission to make america great again, i support and