Teenagers love to text. It's a simple fact of life. Give them a phone, and they'll be texting everyone they know within an hour. The problem arises from that other pastime that teenagers enjoy: driving. The two just don't mix.

The problem is so prevalent that texting while driving makes you six times more likely to have an accident than driving drunk. You're also 23 times more likely to be involved in a driving accident if you text and drive, rather than keeping your focus on driving alone.

A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health finds that making texting forbidden while driving drops the teen death rate by 11 percent. The study examined the effects of state laws against texting while driving, comparing them to states that have passed no such laws. The most effective state laws are the ones that allow law enforcement officers to stop teenagers purely for suspicion of texting. Unfortunately, not all laws are created equal. Some state laws are valid only in cases of "secondary enforcement," which requires officers to have another reason like speeding for stopping a driver before they can enforce the texting ban. As you'd expect, "primary enforcement" is a far more effective deterrent.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's School of Public Health, and published in the August edition of the Journal. The team compiled eleven years of data from the 48 contiguous states, and their findings were eye-opening. A 2.3 percent drop in traffic-related deaths were shown in states that have anti-texting laws — regardless of their enforcement methods or lack thereof.

"Our results indicated that primary texting bans were significantly associated with a 3 percent reduction in traffic fatalities among all age groups," said team member Alva O. Ferdinand, "which equates to an average of 19 deaths prevented per year in states with such bans."

Of course, the researchers couldn't ignore the unavoidable fact that teenagers are not the only drivers who text and drive. Plenty of adults do it too. The study found the most effective means of reducing traffic deaths among adults from 22 years old to 64 is to ban the use of all handheld devices while driving.

Today, 44 states have passed laws that forbid texting while driving. 13 of those ban all handheld devices.

Photo: Lord Jim