Driving a car has always had its extracurricular challenges: hot coffee to juggle, mascara to apply, squabbling kids to corral … but today's driver has a sleek new repertoire of distractions, and is indulging in them like there's no tomorrow.

Numerous recent studies document that using wireless communications, and specifically text-messaging, is one of the most dangerous distractions for a driver, too often with deadly consequences ��" a fact that most people seem to appreciate. In a recent Harris poll, 80 percent of participants favored a ban on text-messaging while driving, and more than 60 percent favored a similar ban on cell phone use.

But knowing a behavior to be dangerous and still engaging in it is an all-too-human trait, since polls also show that 80 percent of Americans admit to using cell phones, and 20 percent to texting, while driving. That amounts to about 100 million people, estimates the National Safety Council.

Even a cursory glance at the statistics is evidence enough that swift, comprehensive action must be taken on a national level to curb this reckless, potentially deadly, behavior: Driving while using a cell phone incurs a fourfold greater risk of crashing, equivalent to driving while drunk (with a 0.08 blood-alcohol level). For texters, the risk is eight times greater. A recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which videotaped truck drivers over 18 months, showed that texting made them 23 times more likely to crash or narrowly avoid a crash.

It was this study that persuaded the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety officials, to support a nationwide ban on text-messaging while driving. It had previously argued that while texting was dangerous, laws banning it would be impossible to enforce. Last month, however, citing the fact that seat-belt and drunk-driving laws also met resistance, but are now widely applied, it reversed its stand.

Then, on Sept. 10, Ford Motor Co., citing the thoroughness of multiple studies that laid out the risks, became the first automobile company to support a ban on hand-held text-messaging while driving.

While laws and provisions vary within states, currently, seven states ban hand-held cell-phone use while driving, and text-messaging is banned for all drivers in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Nine states, including Texas, prohibit text-messaging by novice drivers. Texas also prohibits school bus drivers from texting while driving.

But experts are quick to point out that nationwide legislation is imperative, and not just for novices. Russell Henk, program director of the Texas Transportation Institute's Teens in the Driver Seat program, told the Chronicle, “Absolutely, this issue is critical for teens, as they are higher-risk drivers and highly dependent on texting as part of their social lives. The responsible course of action, however, is for us to bring forth policies that apply to everyone. Regardless of your age, texting and driving is simply a foolish and deadly thing to do.”

Texas teens are well served by Henk's organization, credited with bringing awareness of driving risks to thousands of them, and by other programs such as last week's joint event by Allstate and the Houston Independent School District, reported by the Chronicle's Mary Tuma, in which skilled instructors had students experience those risks first-hand.

Various bills are in the works at state and federal levels to ban, or strictly curtail, drivers' use of electronic devices. One of the most promising, reports The New York Times, would cut 25 percent of a state's federal highway financing if it did not accept a text-messaging ban.

But there's no need to wait for legislation. Americans can decide for themselves that dangerous electronic distractions, costing 330,000 injuries, 2,600 deaths and $43 billion annually, are not worth the risk. There's no text or phone message urgent enough to die ��" or to kill ��" for.

Copyright © 2009 The Houston Chronicle