Than TibbettsThe splash made by a Virginia Tech study of texting while driving wasn’t so much about whether texting is a bad idea, but about just how bad it is. Truckers behind the wheel were [**23 times** more likely to be involved in a collision](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/technology/28texting.html) while they were texting.
The New York Times put together a [texting and driving game](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html) that lets you test your texting meddle, without actually getting behind the wheel and becoming a public safety hazard.
Minnesota’s [texting while driving](https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=169.475) went into effect [last August](http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/23/texting/), and a few incidences have been publicized, though typically in connection with another offense. Embattled auto mogul Denny Hecker plead guilty last week to careless driving; his attorney said he [had been texting while driving](http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/07/24/hecker-texting-while-driving/) when an accident sent him to the hospital last December.
A Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesman told me state troopers are writing tickets regularly, though, compared to infractions like speeding, its more difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
Somewhere, studies are probably underway to determine how other startling activities people take up behind the wheel — reading, eating, or putting on makeup — affect one’s driving abilities. For example, my fiance called me the other day to say she’d seen someone behind the wheel *playing a guitar*.
