Hand held use of phones while driving could soon be banned in OK

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Gail Lambert is on a mission to keep drivers' hands on the steering wheel instead of their cell phones.

Her campaign began with the death of her daughter last May.

Bobbi White, 32, an English teacher at Owasso Mid-High School, had slowed her car in a construction zone on U.S. 169, when a distracted driver hit her vehicle from behind.

The impact drove her car into another automobile. White's car then went down an embankment near a bridge.

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She was fatally injured, but her two children in the car survived. Mason, 13, and Sydney, 10, suffered broken bones but largely have recovered from their physical injuries. The other driver was not seriously injured.

Lambert doesn't know why this driver was distracted, but came away from the accident with a determination to fight motorists' use of cell phones, which is a top driving distraction.

Oklahoma legislators will consider bills in the coming weeks that would prohibit hand-held use of cell phones while driving. Texting and driving already is illegal.

Use of cell phones has become so common that people simply have trouble putting them down when they get behind the wheel.

"It takes a personal tragedy for you to look at it differently," Lambert said. "There has to be a point where this changes.


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