See the story that aired on Elon Local News here.

"Don't text and drive." It's a warning you've probably heard before.

However, in North Carolina the actual law makes things a little dicy.

Enacted in December 2009, the texting and driving law says you may not manually enter multiple letters or text in the device as a means of communication, or read any electronic mail or text messages while driving.

Town of Elon police chief Cliff Parker says what you can do while driving makes it hard for officers to enforce what you can't.

"The way the law was written it's not an easy thing to enforce," Parker said.

According to records provided to ELN by local law enforcement agencies, the Town of Elon has given five citations for texting and driving. Burlington has handed out 13 citations, and the Town of Gibsonville has never written up a citation for texting and driving.

"You're allowed to use a cell phone, make a call, receive a call, check GPS, look at your caller ID," Parker said. "So those are issues that limit the ability to always find this."

In an ELN SurveyMonkey completed by 100 random Elon students, 71 percent of survey respondents reported that they text and drive "occasionally," or "every time they're in the car."

The survey also indicated that 36 percent of the respondents have texted while driving the same week they took the survey.

"We don't want a split second of poor choice to be distracted lead to some type of lifetime of heart ache," Parker said.

Parker said he would much rather focus on awareness and prevention, instead of the aftermath of a texting and driving accident.

While the statistics may not show it, many Elon students do realize the dangers of texting and driving.

"You could always wait to put up that latest post, or check that tweet, because there's always time for that," said senior Kevin Amaya, who witnessed a texting and driving accident first-hand over the summer. "But you only have one chance when it comes to driving in a vehicle."

Chief Parker urged drivers in the area to use voice-activated technology if they need to make calls while driving, and to be proactive in paying attention while driving around campus.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YmEBAnaAN0&noredirect=1&w=560&h=315]