Talking to death: cell calls, texts said to have killed 16,000

Drivers distracted by talking or texting on cell phones killed an estimated 16,000 people from 2001 to 2007, according to a report released yesterday in the American Journal of Public Health.

"Our results suggested that recent and rapid increases in texting volumes have resulted in thousands of additional road fatalities in the United States," Fernando Wilson and Jim Stimpson of the University of North Texas Health Science Center wrote in the study.