Road Rules

Close-to-home fatality reopens the debate: Should Texas ban texting and driving?

The Texas legislature will consider another statewide ban on texting and drivingearly next year.
A 19-year-old Montgomery County native and student at Texas A&M University,Chandler Small died early Wednesday morning in a single-car accident. Officialssay that she was texting and driving at the time.
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Early Wednesday morning, Chandler Small, a 19-year-old Montgomery County native and a student Texas A&M University, was returning to College Station from a visit to friends at Sam Houston State in Huntsville.

DPS officials say that she was pecking out a text message while speeding along Highway 30 when she lost control of her truck and flipped it several times. Although another motorist found the vehicle and law enforcement arrived soon after, Small died at the scene.

An estimated 1.3 million crashes were attributed to cell phone usage in 2011, accounting for nearly a quarter of all auto collisions that year.

Her tragic, close-to-home death again breaches the topic of distracted driving, a bad habit that too many of us can't seem to shake — even if it's just an errant "On my way!" at a stop sign or an odd "OMG" along a neighborhood street.

An estimated 1.3 million crashes were attributed to cell phone usage in 2011, accounting for nearly a quarter of all auto collisions that year. Although there are bans on phone usage in school zones and some city-specific stipulations that outlaw texting and driving, Texas doesn't have any comprehensive anti-texting laws on the books (unlike 39 states and the District of Columbia, where text messaging is banned for all drivers).

For the upcoming state legislative session, Rep. Tom Craddick from Midland has pre-filed a bill that would establish a statewide law against distracted driving — similar to the one that Gov. Rick Perry vetoed in 2011, calling it overreach and a "government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults."

Lawmakers will convene for the 83rd Legislative Session on Jan. 8, 2013. Would you support an outright ban on texting and driving?

Watch KHOU's full report on Small's recent accident below:

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family