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Sioux City, IA (ABC9 News) - AT&T is helping Sioux City's East High School students to reinforce safe driving habits.

Students had the opportunity to participate in a texting and driving simulator today. The simulator is similar to a video game - drivers need to maintain a certain speed and are notified on-screen of when they need to check their phone or send text messages.

Students and faculty say that the simulator drives home the point of how dangerous taking your eyes off the road can be. Giovanni Cruz, an East High School 9th grader, says, "It kind of compares to real-life driving. It's really dangerous and it's just teaching you to like not text and drive."

Jay Weakland, a guidance counselor at East, says, "I was going up-and-down on the speed limit, and then a couple times I noticed I was changing lanes. So right away it was bothering me. I don't know how these kids are able to do both!"

Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota all have laws against texting and driving.

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ennifer Meyers was driving the SUV with her daughter and 89-year-old grandmother, according to an affidavit. A witness told police he saw Meyers’ brake lights and turn signal when Sletten’s Ford Escape plowed into the car on Interstate I-29.

Sletten did not brake and nearly hit the witness’ vehicle after striking Meyers’ SUV, according to the affidavit.

Meyers’ grandmother, Phyllis Gordon, a Minnesota resident, was a passenger in the front seat and died on the scene, the affidavit said.

Meyers and her daughter Paige, who also live in Minnesota, were treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, the court documents said.

Investigators later obtained a warrant to search Sletten’s phone and determined she was looking at photos on her mobile Facebook app at the time of the crash, according to the affidavit. She had also sent text messages while driving. The lack of skid marks on the road suggested Sletten did not see Meyers’ car in front of her, the documents said.

Police obtained a warrant and arrested Sletten on August 27.

North Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. Bryan Niewind said it is against state law to compose or read electronic messages while driving.

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The prevalence of smart phones among teens, and their apparent ignorance of texting hazards, only exacerbates the issue. In fact, one in every five teens believes that texting has no impact on their driving abilities. But the reality is that while teens only account for 6 percent of our drivers, they are responsible for 10 percent of all car accident fatalities.

When you consider that two-thirds of teens own cell phones and the majority feel pressured to send email responses regardless if they’re on the road – it makes distracted driving one of the nation’s biggest problems. The bottom line for thousands of innocent victims is that distractions cause death, and texting while driving increases the odds of an accident by 23 times.

Some 16 percent of all distracted driving crashes involve teen drivers. But texting isn’t the only cause of these accidents. Last year, a whopping 24 percent of teens said they check their Facebook accounts, post tweets and surf the web while driving. Our most serious offenders in distracted driving crashes are our youngest drivers – teens who are more apt to reach for their cell phone while barreling down L.A’s congested highways and residential streets.

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A person may not operate a motor vehicle while manually typing or entering multiple letters, numbers, symbols, or other characters into a wireless communications device or while sending or reading data on such a device for the purpose of non-voice interpersonal communication, including, but not limited to, communication methods known as texting, e-mailing, and instant messaging.”

But has this law really helped the problem with distracted driving? Or is it another rule that Florida citizens will not take seriously until there is extreme measures taken to crack down on it? On January 14, 2014, a video surfaced nationally of a violent car accident in Ft. Myers, Florida, that was the result of texting and driving. The video displays the vehicle being driven erratically, when it veers off of the road into a tree, which in turn causes it to flip over. The driver, 23 year-old Michael James Woody exited the vehicle without a scratch on him.

It seems that while some may be taking the new law seriously, others continue to drive erratically at the expense of their fellow citizens. Everyday a new accident occurs that will result in a death or injury because an individual was not paying attention to the road. As a result, it is necessary to remain defensive while driving, walking or bicycle riding. Make sure if you are riding your bike, you remain in the bicycle lane and never ride in the road. Further, if you are doing so at night, make sure to have the proper reflective gear.

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The nation’s auto regulatory authorities have also backed the technology. Last month, the US Department of Transportation said that it is considering making it mandatory for all automakers to adopt such V2V communication systems by 2016, as a part of its efforts to solidify industry-wide standards for customer safety.

Moreover, auto safety watchdog, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is also pushing for a regulation that will in six months require automakers to install automatic braking systems.

Regulatory authorities around the country have been actively probing automakers and safety parts’ suppliers to ascertain any potential negligence as to customer safety.

The world’s second-largest provider of auto safety parts, Takata Corp UNSP (ADR) (TKTDY), is being probed by the NHTSA for manufacturing potentially damaged airbags, which are then installed in vehicles of various American and Japanese automakers. This led them to collectively recall over 6 million vehicles this year for the airbag defect, identified by faulty airbags rupturing upon deployment.

In March, Toyota Motor Corp (ADR) (TM) agreed to pay a penalty of $1.2 billion for settling a four-year criminal probe regarding delayed auto recalls in 2010, stemming from an unintended yet serious acceleration defect owing to sticky gas pedals.

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Mr. Kellenyi demanded Ms. Jenner’s dad, Bruce, step in and curb her dangerous behavior.

“Bruce Jenner, being a world famous personality, should never let this be broadcast,” Mr. Kellenyi said. “I know if Bruce were in my shoes, this type of driving would never happen in his family.”

Perhaps Bruce was too busy getting his hair did?

“If I were advising Jenner, I would think that the morally responsible thing to do would be to do some sort of outreach to say it’s a mistake, and it’s not how people should be driving, and driving is dangerous, and I wasn’t demonstrating safe behavior, and I promise to do better in the future,” Teens Against Distracted Driving attorney and creator Jason Epstein is quoted as saying.

Ms. Jenner did not respond to Fox’s requests for comment, and has not spoken out on the matter, most likely because she’s preoccupied with whatever this is.

The 21-year-old Australian woman was livid when she slammed into a bicyclist while texting late last year, putting dents in her car. The victim suffered a spinal fracture and would spend the next three months in a hospital, but Davis wasn't having any of it, The Standard reports.

"I just don’t care because I’ve already been through a lot of bullshit and my car is, like, pretty expensive and now I have to fix it," she told a responding officer two days after the Sept. 20 collision. "I’m kind of pissed off that the cyclist has hit the side of my car. I don’t agree that people texting and driving could hit a cyclist. I wasn’t on my phone when I hit the cyclist."

Davis, of Port Fairy, pleaded guilty on Monday to dangerous driving and was fined $4,500. Police say she used her phone behind the wheel 44 times before running down the cyclist. She called emergency responders but parked more than 300 feet away from the victim and refused to offer him help.

Davis couldn't contain her sadness after the loss of her license, and she made her woes known on Facebook:

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Vehicle Accidents caused by texting and driving are injuring and killing people every day but sadly the percentage of drivers who are texting or manipulating electronic devices while driving continued to increase in 2012 according to the latest National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS)of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In 2012, the rate of drivers texting while driving was of 1.5% compared to 1.3% in 2011.

The rate of people using a hand held cell phone has been steady at 5% since 2009 with a significant higher rate of usage among female drivers (6% compared to 4% for male drivers).

0.6% of drivers used headset cell phone while driving in 2013.

Even though the percentage of young drivers who are texting while driving decreased from 3.7% in 2011 to 3% in 2012, this rate is still the highest among all age classes. Among drivers between 25 and 69 years old the rate of drivers who are manipulating electronic devices while driving increased to 1.4% in 2012 compared to 1.1% in 2011.

Please don't text and drive and remember that any accident involving texting and driving could have been prevented!

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Novice drivers are more likely to engage in high-risk secondary tasks more frequently over time as they become more comfortable with driving," Charlie Klauer, group leader for teen risk and injury prevention at the institute's Center for Vulnerable Road User Safety, recently told USA TODAY. "The increasingly high rates of secondary task engagement among newly licensed drivers in our study are worrisome as this appears to be an important contributing factor to crashes or near-crashes."

Here's what you can do to make the road safer for everyone:

Talk to your teen children and grandchildren and set clear rules about safe driving and distraction behind the wheel

Review your jurisdiction's driving laws and make sure that everyone in the family understands the regulations and the penalties for driving while distracted

Set a good example by putting away the phone and other devices when you're the driver

Download and take the pledge to drive phone-free, and encourage others to do the same, at distraction.gov

Consider installing a monitoring device in your teen's car. Some insurance carriers offer these along with a discount.

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