How important is it to remain constantly in touch? Enough to risk your life while behind the wheel? Too many drivers - including our reporter –- learn too late that it’'s critical to leave that phone alone.
Two car crashes, two young women dead, two distraught families, two mobile phones.
It's also been two years since Brooke Richardson and Kiere Nebe Rose, both 20, died in separate tragedies 1100km apart, forever bound by the senseless way they lost their lives — texting while driving.
Brooke's mum Vicki marked the second anniversary of her daughter's death yesterday at the tree where she died just outside Cobram, on the border of Victoria and NSW.
The hairdresser was texting as she drove to work when she lost control of her car at about 8.30am.
An eight-word text: "Are you still going to make it today?" to her friend and client Bella Johnston were her last known words.
Brooke's mobile phone was later found between her feet in the wreck with a message from her mother unread: "Call ASAP, Brooke, please text me!! I love you."
This week has been a difficult one for Vicki, who shared a love of Christmas with her daughter.
"We always put the tree up together," she says. "I went to the cemetery on Monday and put a little tree out there for her."
Just weeks before Brooke's accident, Kiere Nebe Rose died on another country road, this one in Queensland, outside Dalby on the Darling Downs grain belt.
Like Brooke, Kiere was part of Generation Text, never knowing a time without mobile phones.
The pretty blonde animal lover was texting a friend on the Old Warrego Highway when her utility veered into the path of a truck travelling in the opposite direction.
A roadside memorial to the young woman marks the place she died. Her mother is still too traumatised to speak about her daughter's loss publicly.
As authorities grapple with how to prevent the latest scourge on the roads worldwide, texting-related fatalities handled by Queensland coroners are mounting.
Northern coroner Jane Bentley says that since taking on the role in January last year, she has dealt with two cases in which two young men died after losing control of their cars while texting.
In 2013, of Queensland's 271 road fatalities, 18 were put down to driver distraction, which takes in mobile phone use, but that is believed to be an underestimation of the true figures.
One of the state's top traffic police officers, Acting Inspector Shane Panoho, says drivers can become so engrossed with talking or interacting on their mobile phones, they fail to see obstacles on the road.
"I know of one case where a young girl ran into the rear end of another vehicle without even braking," Panoho says.
Traffic had stopped at red lights, the last car in the line a four-wheel-drive with a family inside. The young woman, driving a small car, slammed into the back of them.
"When queried as to why, she was honest and forthright and said: 'I was looking at my phone at the time. I didn't even realise the traffic had stopped.' She was very fortunate. She sustained a leg injury and the occupants of the other car, apart from being shook up by it, had no lasting effects."
Panoho says texting while driving is not only a habit of the youngest drivers. He's personally booked parents with young children in the car for illegally using their mobile phones while driving.
"It's not acceptable," he says. "You're putting not only yourself at risk but also potentially the people you love the most, those children, by engaging in those behaviours."
Researcher Bridie Scott-Parker, of the University of the Sunshine Coast, says parents' bad behaviour on the roads can carry through to the next generation.
She says children who watch for years as their parents text and drive will get the message that it's normal and acceptable behaviour, and will be tempted to do the same thing when they become drivers.
"Mum and Dad are really important models," Dr Scott-Parker says. "Their children are going to copy behaviours they see and copy attitudes that they hear. We want young drivers to learn great habits from the start, not to learn, 'Oh, it's OK to text and drive, it's OK to talk on the mobile phone and drive, because Mum and Dad do it all the time.'
"How can we expect young drivers to regulate their own behaviour if Mum and Dad aren't showing good habits?"
Take the phone off them and say, 'That's stupid'
The state's top cop Ian Stewart says businessmen and women are big offenders when it comes to illegal mobile phone use in the car.
"I understand that we're a connected society now, but the number of businesspeople that I see, particularly in the mornings, who are taking no notice of the laws in relation to mobile phone use, is quite devastating," he says.
"Probably their car is their office in many respects, but I'd ask them to seriously think about what it would mean if they weren't alive the next day or if they caused someone else's death. What's that going to mean for their business?
"Let's get everyone thinking smarter about this."
Stewart has called on passengers in cars with drivers who are texting or talking illegally on a mobile phone to "say no".
"I'm asking people that if they're in a vehicle where that's happening, tell the driver to stop straight away because they're actually risking their lives by not speaking up," he says. "Take the phone off them and say, 'That's stupid,' because it is and it might actually save their life if they do that.
"We need the public to start to realise that the split-second decision they make to take a call or to try to send that text while driving could change their life forever, and it could cause the death of another person. We see young people in wheelchairs for the rest of their lives, we see the death of young children, all because someone didn't pull over to carry on a conversation on a mobile phone or to send a text."
Despite the extreme risk, tens of thousands of people are getting caught for illegally using their mobile phones while driving in Queensland each year. Police statistics show 20,959 infringement notices were issued for the offence up to November 20 this year, 27,971 for the whole of 2013 and 28,550 in 2012. The penalty for illegally using a mobile phone while driving in Queensland is $341 and three demerit points.
Gold Coast firefighter Vic Cantoni, who sees the road carnage caused by illegal mobile phone use first-hand, believes the fines should be trebled.
"Something's got to be done to stop this, because people are just not heeding the warning," he says. "It absolutely has got to stop."
Cantoni has been to one tragedy where police found a half-written text message on a mobile phone inside a wrecked car.
"The car rolled over and the phone got thrown out into the middle of the road," he says. "The person she was talking to actually heard the whole crash happen. In another case, a female driver died after crashing during a conversation on a hand-held phone."
Cantoni tells his story as part of the Queensland Traffic Offenders Program, hoping it will stop people from making bad decisions while driving.
But police figures show some of those being caught for illegal mobile phone use in cars are repeat offenders. Sunshine Coast P-plate driver Meghan Hopper killed a pedestrian and seriously injured another after using her smartphone to access Google Maps in July 2012. Police fined the teenager again five months later doing the same thing. Scott-Parker says more needs to be done to stop people using handheld mobile phones in cars. Just as alcohol ignition locks are used to prevent drink-drivers from starting their cars, she says technology may also need to be considered to stop serial mobile phone offenders.
Scott-Parker says handheld mobile phone use while driving also needs to become as socially and culturally unacceptable as drink-driving. Road Policing Command Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Mike Keating says he challenges cabbies if he sees them reach for their mobile phone while driving, and urges other passengers to do the same.
They are making it less safe for all the rest of us on the roads
"Challenge the person about that behaviour," he says. "It's dangerous, it's reckless, it's absolutely a major contributor to traffic crashes and it's an offence. Everybody knows that you shouldn't do it."
Driver distraction, which takes in mobile phone use, became part of the so-called Fatal Five in Queensland two years ago, joining drink driving, speeding, fatigue and failing to wear a seat belt.
But Police Commissioner Stewart says the issue covers much more than just mobile phones.
"Some of the other stories include people actually shaving, putting their makeup on and eating out of a container while they're driving," he says. "Again, they are making it less safe for all the rest of us on the roads."
Todd O'Rourke was 18, the road was wet after rain and Icehouse's Great Southern Land was playing on his car's CD when he decided he wanted a change of music.
The "split second" he had his eyes off the road while he changed the CD was all it took for him to lose control of his car as he negotiated a right-hand bend too sharply and hit a 4WD coming in the opposite direction.
He spent the next three months in hospital with a dislocated hip, broken right ankle and badly cut right arm after it went through the driver's window. It took emergency service workers three and a half hours to cut him free of the wreckage.
More than 20 years later, O'Rourke, father to seven-year-old Emily, says the accident changed his life.
"My ankle is now riddled with arthritis," he says. "At 41, I should still be able to run around the backyard with my seven-year-old but I can't. If I had my time over, I wouldn't do it again. I really regret it. I know I've missed out on so many opportunities because of it. I love sport but I lost the opportunity to play cricket a lot more.
"I was lucky I didn't die. You think you're invincible. You don't think of the consequences."
He was also fortunate the driver of the other car escaped with only minor injuries that day on Mount Cotton Road at Capalaba, a bayside suburb, in Redland City, east of Brisbane.
O'Rourke still finds it hard driving on that stretch of road, stopping the car to let his wife Annemarie take the wheel if she's in the car with him.
Police charged him with driving without due care and attention. A Cleveland magistrate fined him $200 and he lost three points from his driver's licence.
The crash has made him extra careful when it comes to mobile phones in cars.
"If I want to call someone, I'll pull over," he says.
Virtual death a wakeup call
Rhian Deutrom
I died three times the other day.
I was texting my friend about a party on the weekend, what we were going to wear, what cocktails we would drink. Boring stuff, really – answers my friend could have waited a few minutes to receive, but for reasons I can't explain, I just had to send it from the driver's seat of that car.
So I did, and I died.
But before you start calling me the next Messiah, it was all fake. I was placed in a car simulator to experience the effect that texting can have on motorists.
You just died because you weren't paying attention
I approached this exercise thinking I had nothing to learn. I've been driving for years and, despite my father's constant nagging to "Switch off your bloody phone!" I have successfully kept myself and my fellow Queensland motorists alive — so far.
Don't get me wrong, I have my moments just like everyone my age. For instance, I am guilty of glancing down at my mobile if it rings while I'm driving. And yes, if you must know, I have sent the occasional "Two minutes away, save some pizza for me!" or "I'll grab you a bottle of wine now!" text as well.
But after being thrown across a computerised road more times than I'd care to mention, I started to see just how overconfident I had been.
When the car started I pulled out on to a busy Brisbane highway. Easy, done it a thousand times, nothing to see here.
Then my phone buzzed. "So excited for Saturday! Thinking of wearing that dress I bought the other day."
Well, the road is clear in front of me and it would just be rude if I didn't answer. I didn't notice my car veer across two lanes of traffic and into an oncoming vehicle. Suddenly the doors shuddered and I was thrown hard back into my seat. A bridge came into view and I realised my car had spun around completely in the blink of an eye.
"You just died because you weren't paying attention," a cold voice filtered through the car speakers. "Give me a second and I'll reboot the system for you."
The families of loved ones lost on the road must constantly wish for the option I had in that moment, but life doesn't have a reboot button. I stared hard out my window, panting and trying to collect myself.
"Commence your journey," the voice said. I turned into the city streets and accelerated slowly.
I was forced to take a long look at my driving behaviour that day
The phone buzzed in the centre console. "How far away are you? Need to tell you something!" the text read.
Yes, I did technically just die but what could one more text hurt, especially if I'm really …
The sound of smashing glass surrounded me and the car seat vibrated from the impact of another in front of me. I hadn't seen a hazard a few metres ahead of me and had driven straight into it. I would have flown straight through my windscreen for the sake of a 25c message.
It's a common condition we 20-somethings suffer from. That invincible feeling you get where everything is possible and nothing can touch you. But tragically for many people my age, that feeling is often the last thing they experience when they choose to look at their phones for a second too long.
I was forced to take a long look at my driving behaviour that day, and decided to take a safer path of locking my mobile in the glovebox when I drive.
It might sound silly to my peers, but having had the privilege of surviving a completely avoidable death, I think I'd rather be safe and silly from now on.
