Taylor Sauer, a teenager who was texting every 90 seconds during her four-hour commute from Utah State University to her parents’ home on January 14, made a fatal mistake while behind the wheel.
Her prolific last text was ‘Driving and facebooking is not safe! Haha.’ Seconds later, she slammed into a tanker truck at 80mph.
Now, Ms Sauer’s grieving parents are hoping to use their daughter’s tragic story as a way to change driving laws, and make texting while driving in Idaho illegal.
Ms Sauer, 18, was texting on the long drive to her parents’ house to ‘stay awake,’ her father Clay told the Today show, adding, ‘but that’s not a reason to do it.’
She was driving late at night down a stretch of flat highway, and was messaging her friend on Facebook about the Denver Broncos football team.
Her last message was: ‘I can’t discuss this now. Driving and facebooking is not safe! Haha.’
Moments later, Ms Sauer slammed into a truck that was crawling up a hill. She was killed instantly.
Mr Sauer told the Today show’s Ann Curry that most teens think they’re invincible.
‘To them, (texting) is not distracting, they’re so proficient at texting, that they just don’t feel it’s distracted driving.’
He and his wife Shauna are now lobbying to pass a bill that would ban texting in Idaho, which is one of 13 states which hasn’t made it illegal.
‘This is what she would want us to do,’ Mrs Sauer said. However, the state does have a law against inattentive driving.
The texting and driving ban has already passed through Idaho’s state senate, and could travel to the house as early as tomorrow.
The Sauers described their daughter as intelligent, loving, and loyal. She had wanted to become an elementary school teacher.
‘She wanted to take on the world,’ Mrs Sauer said.
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