Feb 11, 2016 3 min read

The last thing I do before turning in most nights is take a power walk through my town. I prefer a nighttime walk because something about the darkness makes the two miles of sidewalk roll by more quickly.

And the night lets me see inside passing cars in a way the daylight can’t. At night, I can see drivers texting.

Night after night, block after block, the drivers roll past with that telltale rectangle of light floating in front of the steering wheel.

Last night, I counted five drivers texting. One of them drifted through a stop sign, her thumbs pecking away, her chin tilted downward as she watched the keys, her eyes not on the road.

This was no teenager, or even 20-something. The phone’s screen threw off enough light to show this driver was a mature adult, plenty old enough to know better.

Much of the dialogue about the dangers of texting while driving is aimed at teenagers. Aren’t teens the ones who can’t cut the phone umbilical? I’ve seen a teenager or two texting behind the wheel, but more often the texters are older.

At least one recent survey appears to back that up. A 2013 study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found mature adults are by far the most likely age group to admit to texting while driving. Among the 25-to-39 age group, 82 percent admit to using their phones while driving – about half of them saying they do so fairly often. The numbers for those aged 40 to 59 were almost as troubling, with 72 percent in that age group admitting to texting and driving.

But teens? That study shows only 7 percent of them admit to using their phones while driving.

Now, what we may be seeing in those numbers is the tendency of teenagers to lie about their reckless behavior. Maybe with age comes more honesty and self-awareness.

But still. We’ve known for years that texting while driving is a lethal combination, and yet, the vast majority of experienced drivers say they do it.

Talk about immature.

As part of driver training, my daughter attended a class in which she watched movies of crash scenes involving teenagers who had been drunk or texting. The films were vivid and gruesome. They were scary enough to be instructive.

“I will never text and drive,” she said.

Maybe the crash films are cutting down on the number of teens who text and drive. Their parents should watch the films, too. Teens are not the only drivers who can cause accidents. The main street in my town is a surface route to several other towns, a way to get off a main highway. Maybe the drivers feel the quiet street is safe for texting. It isn’t.

On my nightly walk, I see as many men texting as women. I wonder what the thumbs are saying. Be home in 10? Need anything at the store? What’s the score of the game?

What’s so important? And why are you – someone who knows better – so reckless and selfish and stupid?

Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.