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10:11:00 PM EDT
Feeling Sad
Teen text messaging while driving hits and kills toddler
Two years ago I was almost hit head on by a driver who had his head down while talking on a cell phone. He never slowed down or stopped after he forced my van to cross two lanes of traffic to avoid hitting him head on. I hit the side of my head so hard that four teeth cracked and broke. I had a nasty head injury. Thank God my Shelby was buckled in and was safe.
Talking on cell phones--much less text messaging-- while driving is like driving drunk.
Hang up and drive.
My heart grieves for this toddler's family.
Distracted young driver kills 2 1/2-year-old in N. Ky.
Teen was sending message on phone
By Mike Rutledge
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON, Ky. -- The vehicle of a teenager driving while text-messaging and without headlights on hit and killed a 2 year-old boy crossing a street, police said.
Two older children were able to get across safely after someone yelled a warning about the approaching car, according to the dead boy'smother.
The victim, Nhiem Jennings of Mount Auburn, was struck on the Covington street shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday and was carried 68 feet before the car stopped, police said.
He was pronounced dead early Sunday at Children's Hospital Medical Center.
The other children, 11 and 7, "had time enough when she yelled to get on the curb, before Nhiem did," said Nhiem's mother, Ranesha Jennings. "He's just a little bitty guy. He's not going to know if somebody's yelling, to respond."
Driver Jeremy Deming, 18, of Covington, is charged with reckless homicide, a class D felony, and was released early Sunday on $5,000 bond. He pleaded not guilty yesterday at his arraignment in Kenton District Court.
A conviction on the charge can bring one to five years in prison.
In an affidavit, Covington Police Sgt. Neil Gilreath wrote, "There were no skid marks at the point of impact."
Jeremy Deming, who told police he was driving about 10 mph over the posted 25-mph speed limit, sent a text message "immediately prior to his hitting the young child," Gilreath's affidavit said.
"I guess it's one of those you-need-to-hang-up-and-drive cases," said Ken Easterling, chief prosecutor in the Kenton County Attorney's office.
According to National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration estimates, 25 percent of traffic crashes in the United States are caused by distracted drivers -- doing anything from using a cell phone to reading directions to applying makeup.
The victim was returning with his family from a picnic, and earlier had gone with his uncle, Cedric Streeter, to a youth baseball game. The children were crossing the street when the uncle's girlfriend saw the car and yelled to them, said Jennings, 24, of Mount Auburn.
Neighbors said they hope the accident will prompt the city to install speed humps or some other device to slow traffic on the street.
"It shouldn't happen again," Sterling King said.
Jennings said her son "was such a happy baby. There was nothing about him that was sad."
"I would rather him be with God with no pain, than be here suffering," she said. "Because had he made it, he would not have been the same little boy that ran around and played on his horse all day."
"He was really loving, man," Streeter said. "He had everybody's heart."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
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This might sound odd but I thought that since people won't stop doing those things and drive that they teach them how to use them properly and drive.....for I think you can. I don't use my phone a lot when I drive but when I do, I constantly look at all my mirrors and don't take my eyes off the road since I know my phone well enough not to look at it to press the keys. Even if they make it illegal, it won't stop, so making people aware how to do it right would probably work better.
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What people try to do while driving is truly terrifying. I have seen people trying to put on makeup, bob up and down evidently trying to locate something on the floor of the car, go down the road with a triple decker burger in one hand and an extra large coke in the other-and neither hand was on the steering wheel. :-(
They set up restricted licenses for teen here in Oregon after several very messy and deadly crashes including one humdinger where the driver was trying to retrieve a cassette tape from the floor of the car while driving 80 while coming back from the coast. We spent nearly an hour stuck on the highway while they tried to clean that up. They finally let some of us through so the evac choppers could land. Very scary.
Jackie -
how sad....such a tragedy...i think that driving while talking on a cell phone should be illegal...its so wrong...i see it all the time and i just want to scream at the person...how can they hold the phone and talk, drive, be turing a turn...all that while driving and call it safe??? it is so wrong...i feel so bad for this little guy and his family....
linda
http://journals.aol.com/lindainspokane/LifewithLinny
http://journals.aol.com/lindainspokane/LinnysLuciousLicking s -
So sad... that really is horrible..I cant imagine being a parent of a child killed that way..I dont know how I'd handle it..
And as for you..thats pretty horrible.. thank god you are ok... @!:)Mel
5/18/05 7:15 PM