Related articles:

Lawmaker eyes DWT (driving while texting) plan

Other articles by Andrea Kelly:

County hopes to buy, save Hohokam site New team to run Rio Nuevo projects Ghost Ranch project still alive Recent fights at state prison could cost county Developers evicting Rialto Foundation Road runner : I-10 work going well, traffic tie-ups aside Road runner : Fewer deaths tied to dip in rural driving RTA: Don't blame us for water feeRoad runner: Dump the Pump encourages leaving car at home for a dayRoadrunner: Is Tucson ready for Dump the Pump Day?

Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION General
A1 Communications
Cable Techs

Arizonans rank the lowest in the nation for the percentage of people who send text messages while driving.

Only 17 percent of Arizona drivers admitted to sending text messages while driving, compared with 40 percent who said they practice "driving while texting" in South Carolina, the highest-ranked state.

Perhaps more noteworthy, 78 percent of Arizonans think it should be illegal to send text messages while driving, which is good news for those who want to prohibit the practice of spelling out words on a mobile phone's keypad and sending them to another's phone while driving.

Younger people, who are more likely to send text messages in any circumstance, were the least likely to think the practice should be banned, according to a study done earlier this year by Common Knowledge Research Services for Vlingo Corp.

Vlingo provides voice-recognition service, which would enable someone to compose a message by speaking into a phone.

Though Arizona ranks lower in self-reported text-messaging while driving in the national survey, state Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, said the frequency is still alarming because it is unsafe. Anything that takes your attention off the road poses safety risks, he said.

He realized this when he first got a phone that enabled him to check his e-mail. It was tempting to check e-mails during the drives between Tucson and Phoenix, he said.

"Being able to answer e-mails at any time is incredibly addicting," he said. "I realized just how dangerous it is to be hurtling down I-10 at 75 miles per hour in a hunk of metal" checking e-mail or text messages.

Last year he introduced a bill to make it illegal to send text messages while driving, but it never got a hearing in the House Transportation Committee. The same thing happened this year.

The texting restrictions are now part of an amendment to a bill in the Senate and may yet make it to a vote this session, he said.

Farley believes just making it illegal would deter people.

"It's almost irrelevant whether an officer can catch someone, but if it were illegal, a lot of people would stop doing it," he said.

The survey showed 85 percent of people would not text-message or send e-mails or instant messages from their phones while driving if it were illegal.

The group most likely to use text-messaging on their phones is people ages 13 to 29, according to the survey.

That concerns Farley.

"That's particularly a problem, because young drivers are inexperienced and have an exaggerated sense of immortality," he said.

The city of Phoenix passed a ban on text-messaging while driving, but Farley said he would prefer the measure to apply statewide instead of varying from city to city.

"I don't know how much longer cities are willing to wait," he said.