The dangers of texting and multi-tasking

The recent Los Angeles commuter train tragedy confirms again the danger of multi-tasking and texting.  Apparently the railroad employee responsible for putting two trains on a collision course over a single track was texting when he should have recognized the danger and the warning of impending catastrophe. 

 Twenty-five persons were killed in the second California railroad crash with alleged cellphone involvement this summer.  The NTSB has recommended a ban on wireless communication by train crews since they were implicated in two 2002 collisions.  California's Public Utilities Commission has enacted an emergency ban for railroad employees.  Nielson Mobile claims that texting is virtually a second language for teenagers, whom it claims send on average more than one thousand messages each month.  In another survey, forty percent of respondents admitted to texting while driving, which one expert claims reduces the driver's capacity for performing executive functions by at least 10 IQ points.