i was bubbly and vie on vacation. >> maria didn't know a stranger. didn't know who she was around. she treated them like she knew

them for the longest time. >> this was the text by daughter read when she drove into oncoming traffic. >> cheryl: welcome to "beyond the headlines," jenni cheryl je, that is very powerful public service announcement. we are talking about distracted driving. they say there are three types, visual, which is taking your eyes off the road. and taking your mind off the road and manually which is taking your hands off the steering wheel. we'll hear from a mother that paid the ultimate price and we'll hear from a state senator on texting while driving. joining us in the studio to talking about dangers, is captain dennis o'leary. he is head of the san francisco police department head of traffic company. >> glad to be here.

>> cheryl: this is a subjected that is so troublesome to me as a journalist i have to report on these cases every day. what can we do about it? the fact that it involves many things. what is your definition? >> same definition that you jigs used. distracted driving is any thaist takes your attention away from your driving. it could be visual. it could be manual. it could be your thinking, cognitive. i think that the most dangerous of distracted driving is texting while driving. >> cheryl: why would you say that? >> because a person has to focus on a screen and take their eyes off the road wse ago compose ago text or reading a text. >> cheryl: so you are using different parts of the brain, your mind is engaging in the thought process? >> eating while driving has been determined distracted driving.

>> cheryl: if you take your eyes off the road for a second to text -- i seal see people doing it all the time. how fast can an accident happen? >> an accident can happen in less than a second, but nearly reaching for a phone itself, studies have shown that it takes a little bit over 4.5 second to reach for a phone. in 4.5 seconds your car can travel the length of a football field at 55 miles an hour. >> is it young people who tha are doing texting and driving? >> media reports tend to focus younger people, but my experience is that everyone that has a cellphone that uses it for texting does text while driving. >> i had a report involved with different angers of people but mostly young people. there is a difference in the way

they process the driving because they haven't had as much experience. >> that is a very good point. "new york times" article sed yesterday stated that younger drivers tend to overrate their abilities and under rate the dangers posed by driving itself zblooc i want to ask you, what do people do to report distracted driving. somebody is driving like this and they are texting and i want to reported them but i don't know what i should do? >> in san francisco, you can call the dispatcher 911, i would hope that the chp would accept your call as well if you called 911 on the freeway to report someone that is texting while driving. >> cheryl: if they catch up and not doing it, you may feel like a fool but save someone's life? >> another good point. there is no harm in reporting a crime like that. >> cheryl: how seriously does

your department take distracted driving? >> we engage in campaigns where we'll educate the public and we'll follow up with enforcement. just recently we took part in a campaign with the california highway patrol where we focused on texting while driving. we were given knowledge. by the state acknowledgement by the state of california. >> cheryl: what about parents? >> parents should do model behavior. don't drive while distracted. especially using a cellphone or to speak or to text while driving. >> cheryl: you think this hands free thing is working? >> i think that a person that is in a conversation on a phone while driving engages in distracted driving whether they are talking to a passenger or

talking to somebody on the phone. i think it's just as dangerous to drive while having a conversation on the phone as it is to hold the phone to your ear. i think we should try not to do that. >> cheryl: we'll be back with much more about the issues and concerns about the distracted driving. ♪ ♪ i'm thinking sweet ♪ and i'm thinking new ♪ i'm thinking all these brilliant colors ♪ ♪ shining through ♪ i'm thinking sunshine ♪ i'm thinking sunshine ♪ i'm thinking [ whistles ] ♪ i'm thinking [ whistles ] [ female announcer ] 40 delicious flavors that feel as good as they taste. yoplait, it is so good!

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>> cheryl: welcome back. we're talking about distracted driving. we ask you to join the conversation on our facebook page, what are some of the worst examples of distracted driving you witnessed. one writes, a man was reading a newspaper. he was flipping pages and weaving in and out of the lane. i never saw anything so crazy. a girl putting on makeup. really? and lisa says, besides the usual stuff, even a bowl of cereal and a man using a electric razor. stiff esh fines would be the only things that might get it through people's thick heads. car crash pictures seem don't seem to do the trick. reach out to us at abc7news.com and follow me on twitter. we are continuing our discussion

with captain dennis o'leery. you saw some of those examples. i have seen people put make upand i see men holding up their electronic readers. have you seen anything that disturbed you? >> i think the most disturbing example was the young lady that was prosecuted for vehicular manslaughter in sonoma county where she admitted she was texting while driving. she distract pedestrian and killed that person. texting while driving is very difficult for a police officer to enforce. the reason being that typically the phone is held out of view of law enforcement. the same law applies to using a cellphone while driving. that is a lot easier to enforce because you can see the person holding the phone to their ear while they are driving. >> cheryl: do you think -- there

is a tough question -- that texting is worse than drunk driving? >> well, texting while driving is a form of distracted driving. distracted driving can lead to collisions. impairment brought about through intoxication whether alcohol or drugs, first off, alcohol and drugs tend to lower's one inhibitions and therefore that person may be speeding as a result of their impairment as a result of that their intoxication. distracted drivers tend to drive slower. so as a result, the old saying in traffic enforcement, speed kills, i would have to go with drunk driving being much more dangerous. >> cheryl: one of our viewers on facebook, that ra laws need to be tougher? >> in the state of california first fine for driving while

using a cellphone is $20. the second offense is $50. so that is quite a statement of what society thinks of distracted driving. >> cheryl: it's not that much? >> it's not. some people would probably wanted to make it a felony where you are teash out of your car and put in handcuffs and taken to jail. we have to look where the laws are and who wrote them. right now, a $20 fine is quite a statement about society's view of distracted driving. >> in my opinion, knowing how many people around here when i'm stuck in traffic, they don't think it's a problem. just from law enforcement, saving lives and saving people from being hurt, laws could be

stiffer. >> they could be stiffer. a lot of collisions occur because of distracted driving, but that is difficult to prove. a lot of times it's the self-reporting where the driver says, i was on the phone. i wasn't paying attention. i don't think we're there yet. >> cheryl: what more can law enforcement do? >> i think education is as powerful if not more powerful than enforcement. getting out there and trying to get people who are starting to drive and teaching them the dangers of texting while driving using your cellphone while driving, i think that is incredibly important. if we can change the culture that little about it, get people to stop texting while driving, i think that is far better and more effective tool than the

enforcement aspect of it. >> cheryl: we'll start with the parents. thank you so much for what you are doing. we do take another break. when we continue we're going to be joined by a mother whose life was f

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♪ ♪ [ siren ] >> got two people involved in a minivan, ejected patient. >> hope your family never gets that phone call. according to the center for injury research and prevention, automobile accidents are more common among young drivers than any other age group. one in four accident fatalities involve somebody between the ages of 16 and 24. joining us in the studio is

martha tessmer. she lost her son donovan three weeks shy of his 17th birthday because of distracted driving. her work through her organization, impacted on teen drivers. i see the logo on your shirt. how long was it you lost your son? >> maybe five years. >> cheryl: in a mother's heart. >> it seems like five days ago. time moves at a different pace. >> cheryl: i can't imagine how it changed your life. >> i totally changed our life in so many ways. my son was not only going to turn 17 but he was two weeks from starting his senior in high school. he was college football star. we never got to see that happen. >> cheryl: how did the accident happen? >> on the last day of football practice because he had been working real hard all summer, it

was his dream, to play college bowl. his girlfriend was driving. all five teens in the car, the last thing the driver said, i love you martha. we thought he couldn't be safer with anybody else. passengers in the back seat had not decided to the put on seat belts and they were veok go and laughing along with the radio and passenger started teasing the driver. go a little faster. there was no drug oregon drinking. the driver wasn't texting. it was five teens having much in fun in the car. very distracted. when they started teasing, her response was like this.

and she jerked the steering wheel and she lost control of the vehicle and it spun around and they hit the first tree. the backdoor flew open and the three boys in the back seat, donovan included they were ejected and my son died instantly. >> cheryl: then i got that horrible phone call. >> the frantic phone call from neighbors, something bad has happened. we didn't know it was a car crash. we didn't know what had happened until we got to the scene. there was a body under the yellow tarp. chp officer said he didn't make it. >> so you are part of the program? >> i am part of the program. it's a nonprofit organization we work closely with the california highway patrol and other law enforcement agencies talking to teens, working with team leaders. we train the team leaders how

they can take the message the impact driving materials. >> cheryl: you heard the captain all the forms of distracted driving. do you deal with the same issues? >> we take to them about texting but more comprehensive in that topic. we talk about anything that thiax their eyes off the road. when we talk to teens, what you consider lethal, what they would say. it may be cobra, poison, but really for most people, things such as texting. it takes your eyes off the wheel and brain from your driving. >> cheryl: how do they receive it? >> they receive it with emotion. that is what we want. we're not about blood and gore.

we are a research based company. we appear to the emotional level of the teens. after the vd they see the video. i come back out and i introduce myself as donovan's mom. i am the face of reality standing in front of them. i tell them the story behind the story. you have a car load of friends costing my son his life. because we chose, i'm able to share what it's been like to be the people left behind that whether in the car that contributed to that bad road trip as well as the family left behind. ultimate challenge at the end of any team is make another stand. if you drive reckless your family could end up in the same situation. is that what you want?

we try to bring it down to their personal level, it could easily as happen to you to you and your family what happened to us. >> cheryl: this think about the other person? >> absolutely. people ask me how i would describe, the two words i use is selfish and cruel. anybody who is choosing to distracted and that they are taking a can chance. if there is a car crash, to take someone's life. what a cruel acted that you might take a loved one from someone's family for why you moment of inattention. >> cheryl: i'm so sorry about that. i know you are saving lives. >> cheryl: when we continue, we're going to hear from state senator joe simitian and what lawmakers are doing

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>> cheryl: welcome back. we have been talking about

distracted driving. 80% of crashes and 65% of near crashes involve some form of driver distraction. the distraction occurred a merely three seconds before the crash. state senator joe simitian, i spoke to him about what is currently being done to stop these dangerous behaviors. >> right now we have three laws on the books that i think help save lives. hand free cellphone bill that was passed back in 2006. a teen safety bill in 2007 that prohibits new drivers, 16 and 17-year-olds from use anything mobile device. in 2008 we passed the no texting law. all three became are you law and are on the books here in california. i think they are saving lives. one the challenges we face is the fines are modest. $20 baseline. that does turn into a $160

ticket but the baseline is relatively modest compared to other vehicle code violations here in california. if you were in car-pool lane or littering while driving. baseline is $100. so more than we have the fines on the books for distracted driving. >> cheryl: how much would you like to see the fines increased? >> that legislation is moving through the state legislature right now that would increase the baseline from modest $20 to a still modest $30. that additional ten dollars would fund a program of public education and awareness around the state. i think that is one of that is key to keep distracted driving on top of their minds for california drivers. i think that would make the penalty closer to $200 rather than 160. most importantly there is a point on the driver's license

second violation all that is in the bill i'm trying to make law at the end of this year. i sent a similar bill last year to governor brown and he vetoed it. >> i spent two hours in traffic, and i can't believe to me to the sides of me and were texting at they were moving. i'm concerned that maybe we need to do more. >> that is the thinking behind the legislation i offered. i try slightly larger increase but that was not acceptable to the governor. i scaled it back to see if we can find a middle ground. you need to do three things. you have to have a vigorous enforcement, meaningful penalties and good public awareness campaign. >> cheryl: have you received federal support for your legislation? >> we certainly have over the course of the years. we had a good result after the hands free bill was passed. even with 60-70% compliance. what we saw was 20% drop in the

number of fatalities and collisions on california highways over the course of just a year. probably 700 fewerities fatalits the hands free bill was in effect. in everyday terms, somewhere in california a couple people are going to sit down to dinner with the families that wouldn't have made it through the day. we tend to focus on fatalities, we probably have 75,000 to 100,000 fewer collisions every year, as well. that has been a very good story to tell at the national level. >> cheryl: what is your message to california drivers? >> my message distracted driving takes lives and unnecessarily. back in 2006 when i authored the hands-free law for california, we probably had close to hundred californians who lost their lives in iraq and afghanistan, close to 300 californians that lost their lives in fires. more than 200 that were victims

of homicide but there were 4,000 plus highway deaths that could have been avoided. they are being avoided as we apply distracted driving laws in california. exercise common sense and care. it's just not worth it. the life you save may be of your own. >> cheryl: great advice. that is all the time we have. i with a than wanted to thank all of our guests to talk about this very important issue. we have information about everything we discussed available on our website at abc7news.com/community. you can find us on facebook and please follo te a twitter at which i recall at abc7. thanks so much for joining us. have a great week. bye for you now.