For your sake, and others, hand up and drive

Parents of teenagers are amazed at their ability to multi-task -- playing board games while listening to their iPods while text messaging and carrying on face-to-face conversations.

But the issue became deadly serious over the weekend when federal officials began looking into reports that the engineer blamed for a train crash that killed him and 24 other people may have been text messaging shortly before the crash.

The crash, in Los Angeles, injured 135 other people and was the deadliest rail accident in 15 years.

A teenager told a local television station that he had exchanged a brief text message with the engineer shortly before the crash. The station said the teen was among a group of youths who had befriended the engineer, and broadcast images of a text message apparently signed by him and dated 4:22 p.m. Friday, shortly before the crash.

A railroad spokesman said the commuter train's engineer failed to stop at a red light on the tracks, but federal officials cautioned they had not completed their investigation.

The issue of making it illegal to talk on cell phones while trying to drive is one thing, but the choice of whether or not to try to text while driving seems so obvious as to be ludicrous.

Please, for everyone's safety, hang up your cell phone -- and that especially includes texting -- when you drive.