A very bad habit
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. - Melissa Jurgens is making a public motoring mea culpa. She is admitting to texting while driving.
"I was very guilty of texting while driving with him (Brandon, 2) in the car," said Jurgens.
Texting while driving is illegal in Minnesota, along with at least 23 other states including Wisconsin and Iowa. There is no texting while driving ban in North or South Dakota.
The Maple Grove mother, who travels a great deal in health industry consulting job, admitted that she thought she was immune to any problems from her distracting habit, even though she had seen coverage of warnings about the practice on local and network television news programs, including KARE's "Great Hang Up" campaign.
"But then, I saw a Mom who was killed because she was texting and driving and I thought 'what happens, if that is me and Dad has to explain to him (Brandon) where Mommy is?' I decided to stop," explained Jurgens.
"I knew I was not alone. I knew there were other Moms that were in the same boat. I needed to be challenged to stop texting while driving."
Jurgens believed she was addicted, in some way, to tapping the messages and allowing the driving distraction. She took her plight to the Internet. Specifically, she formed a "group" on the Moms Like Me website in July. "Our 'Text Out' group is now about 50 strong and it is continuing to grow. They just give me tips. You know, turn your phone on 'silent', put it in the backseat, put it in the trunk if you need to, sit on it, whatever you need to do, and we swap stories: 'Okay, who did good today? Who did not do good today?'," said Jurgens.
Jurgens shakes her head at the frivolity of the texts. "Oh, my gosh! I was going 64 miles an hour down the freeway! Why was I doing that? You know, for the stupidest reasons! It is not like I was texting anything major. You know, checking in with my husband. What do you want for dinner? Meeting up with my sister for lunch and you know? That text can wait."
Now that she is breaking away from her texting habit, Jurgens says she feels liberated. "You feel kind of free. Like you do not have to worry about it, but yet, I constantly think 'Is someone e-mailing me from work?' or 'Is someone needing me?' but it can wait, you know?"
KARE Moms Like Me website manager Cindy Chapman finds great interest in the texting subjects. "We have done polls on texting and driving and it has been one of our most popular polls in the 2 years that Moms Like Me has been in existence. It is really a hot topic on the site."
Chapman emphasized that is not necessary to register with Jurgens's 'Text Out' group to participate in the discussions and advice.
Jurgens admits pushing herself away from the phone keypad is a work in progress. "It is like lose weight or running a marathon. You do it steps at a time. The first 3 days, I said, I am only going to do it at a stoplight. Then, the next 3 days, I am going to turn on silent and sit on it. Pretty soon, you get to the point where you do not even notice that you got a text or that little red light is blinking that an email is 'in' or something like that.
"One time is the one time that could kill somebody or could injure someone, even one of us."
The fine for violating the texting while driving laws vary from state to state in the states that ban the practice. The fine in Minnesota is $300.
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