Reporting: Cops, lawmakers send message: Dnt txt & drive

Nicholas Sparks didn’t plan to go swimming on a recent Wednesday morning. But sheriff’s deputies in Niagara County, N.Y., say Sparks found himself — and his tow truck — in a backyard pool July 29 after he rear-ended a car and screeched off the road at high speed.

Sparks, 25, of Burt, N.Y., is charged with reckless driving, talking on a cell phone and following too closely in the incident, which left the 68-year-old woman whose car he allegedly hit briefly hospitalized with head injuries and slightly injured his 8-year-old grandniece, who was with him in the truck.

As it happens, deputies say, Sparks was using two cell phones at the same time — talking on one and sending text messages on the other. But he faces charges only for talking, because while it’s illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving in New York, it won’t explicitly be illegal to send text messages on one until Nov. 1, when a law passed last week takes effect. ...

Full story (Alex Johnson/msnbc.com)