Aw, Sue, that just stinks. All of it.

Still - while I'm in no way implying that ANY phone use while driving isn't dangerous (including completely hands free with voice dialing - it's been demonstrated more than once that it's the conversation itself that's the greatest distraction and leads to tunnel vision) - still, I wouldn't be so quick to blame texting if you don't know that's what happened.

As I've said in many other threads, running facing traffic has been a real eye-opener. Almost none of the people who target fixate on me (close to 20% of drivers! to some extent, although it's only maybe once every couple of months that I have an encounter that makes me dive for the ditch) appear to be using phones in any way. Both hands on the wheel, mouths not moving. Just staring at me and automatically steering toward me.

Also, a good half of the times that I read about someone leaving the roadway to mow down someone on the shoulder or sidewalk, the driver is elderly, which my experience with that demographic is that it's frustratingly hard to even get them to turn their frickin' phones on, so I would tend to assume they're not using them while driving.