Don't text & drive: Saint Mary's sends an important message

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- "Hand of the phone! Eyes on the road!" -- that was the message for Saint Mary's students on Wednesday.

The college hosted a talk on the dangers of texting and driving.

Students got a chance to get behind the wheel and experience those dangers first-hand in a simulator.

It is designed to open students' eyes to the consequences of sending that "quick text".

"The last thing you want to have happen to any of your friends of loved ones is for them to receive your text and they're reading it when you died that day," said Lt. Tim Williams of the Mishawaka Police Department.

Police said average texting drivers take their eyes off the road for about six seconds.

In that time, you can travel the length of a football field.