Man texts, 'I need to quit texting,' before driving into ravine

DCH Honda of Lemon Grove - Safe Teen Driving  - reminds you to please do not text and drive.

Man texts, 'I need to quit texting,' before driving into ravine

via WAFF

By TODAY.com staff

A Victoria, Tex. college student believes he is lucky to be alive after a terrible crash. He was texting and driving the 30-some miles back to his hometown of Ganado when his truck drove off the road and into a ravine.
One of the last things 21-year-old Chance Bothe texted before his crash nearly happened to him. He was having an argument with his friend via text when he typed, "I need to quit texting, because I could die in a car accident."
After the crash, Chance had an open compound fracture to his left ankle, a punctured right lung, multiple facial fractures along with lacerations, and a severe skull fracture with some apparent head trauma. Now, six months later, he's finally able to talk about what happened.

"They just need to understand, don't do it. Don't do it. It's not worth losing your life," he said, according to NBC-affiliate WAFF in Huntsville, Ala. "I went to my grandmother's funeral not long ago, and I kept thinking, it kept jumping into my head, I'm surprised that's not me up in that casket. I came very close to that, to being gone forever."
According to WAFF, Chance's father said that if his child was just learning to drive, he would disable texting and Internet on their phone.
This story has been updated, and contains reporting from Tricia Forbes, WAFF in Huntsville, Ala. Here is a link to her original piece, which first ran in this space.

dchlg.com