Texting and driving:It's not worth it

If you think you are a good enough driver to avoid a wreck while texting and driving, think again.

"I woke up and I remember seeing blood everywhere and wondering why the pole was in my window," said Beaumont resident and teacher Ashley Kelley.

She admits trying to text a picture to a friend in March of 2014 moments before careening her vehicle into a fence. A metal pole punched through her windshield.

"The doctors told me that if it had been any more to (one side or the other) ... It would have killed me," she said.

This picture shows the impact of what the crash did to her face.

Two years later, she's recovered.

30-year-old Thomas Klohn never got a second chance.

"He was cremated on site for a 30 second text," said his mother Joyce Osborne of The Woodlands.

Klohn was killed in a fiery February wreck in Arizona. Osborne says he was driving a big rig while texting.

He leaves behind three children , aged 9 to just 4 years old. Only his oldest understands.

"He said Mimi - I'm never gonna get to kiss my dad again, am I?" Osborne said, through tears.

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. On Tuesday, at the University of Houston, the Texas Department of Transportation brought this message of "Talk. Text. Crash." to students to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving. Experts say 51% of distracted drivers in crashes last year in Texas were under age 35.

"You don't make sense of it as a mom.. No way," said Osborne.

Ashley Kelley teaches kindergarten. She hopes everyone of driving age will learn from her mistake - a lesson she can teach well beyond the classroom.

"Everything on your phone can wait. It's not that important," said Kelley.

Experts say while driving you might put your phone away, somewhere you're not as tempted to touch it, maybe in the glove box or in the passenger door. There are also apps out there that you can put in place which will limit your child's ability to text while in a moving vehicle.

For more on the TxDOT campaign designed to reduce texting and driving, click here.