Expecting mother now waits to text

HAMPTON ROADS (WAVY) - Call it a sign of the times - texting while driving. On any given day, you can count on seeing at least one person shamelessly punching away at their phone while cruising down the road.

WAVY.com saw it recently on Independence Boulevard in Virginia Beach. It appeared the woman had both hands firmly planted on the steering wheel, but resting between her hands was a cell phone. Her thumbs were typing away as she cruised at 45 miles per hour.

18-year-old Brittany of Virginia Beach admits she had her phone glued to her hand 24-7.

"I would text every single chance I got. I would text when I was in class, I would text doing whatever... and it would be silly little text messages to my friends," said Brittany.

The silly little text messages were sent even from behind the wheel of a moving car.

"I would swerve sometimes, I would go when I was on the interstate and go from like 55 up to 70 something, going... when did I get there?" said Brittany.

While easily distracted, Brittany couldn't kick the habit until last September. This is when another driver slammed into her while she was stopped along the road. Just moments earlier, Brittany witnessed that the other driver was texting.

"You have to see the person in front of you, and I was stopping beforehand and I put my indicator on. Just because I did see her texting at the light actually I put my indicator on," said Brittany.

But flashing her brake lights and signaling early didn't help. The crash totaled her car and left her with one thought.

"I was worried about my baby, that's all I was worried about," she said. Brittany was pregnant.

"I went to the hospital and they were doing the ultrasound and everything, and they couldn't see him at all on the ultrasound and they did it for like 30 minutes straight and they couldn't see it," said Brittany.

For a whole week, Brittany didn't know if her baby survived the crash. Finally, her baby shoed up on an ultrasound and Brittany breathed a sigh of relief.

The mom-to-be, who's due any day now, is forever changed. Today, she ignores all texts while driving.

"It made me realize, it's not only my life, it's his life that I'm responsible for too," said Brittany.

Realizing she's lucky and better off if she waits to text.

WAVY.com wants you to "Wait to Text." Our goal is to get 150,000 people in Hampton Roads to take the pledge.

Click here for more information on the WAVY W82TXT campaign.