For the first time, I own a mobile phone that has a complete keyboard (a so-called QWERTY setup), which is intended to ease the process of typing text messages.

So let me say, here and now, for any and all to read, that I promise to never, ever, EVER send text messages (or read received ones) while driving my car.

It's been just over two years since five teenage girls were killed in a texting-related head-on crash in the Finger Lakes region of New York, and I want no part of any practice that has the potential for - if not the likelihood of - such deadly results.

Recent studies have concluded that texting drivers are just as likely to cause crashes as drunk drivers, and we all know how devastating DWI wrecks can be. So let's not add to the already-too-high body count on our roads by engaging in yet another careless practice while behind the wheel.

I've taken the pledge. I urge everyone else to do the same.