Texting and driving are a dangerous mix, just as hazardous as drunken driving. And as studies and statistics make this clear, laws prohibiting texting at the wheel have gained momentum at all levels of government.

The laws are a proper response to an unfortunate fact: Without them, many drivers will not put down their cell phones and other messaging devices to keep their eyes on the road. Such careless people threaten themselves, their passengers and everyone in their vicinity.

At the federal level, the Department of Transportation recently issued a rule that bans texting on hand-held devices at the wheel by interstate commercial truck and bus drivers. Depending on the circumstances, drivers in violation face civil or criminal charges and fines up to $2,750.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood admitted that enforcement will be a challenge but that officials are committed to the effort.

Although many companies ban employees from using cell phones and computers while driving on the job, some employees don't comply.

The new rules follow by two weeks LaHood's participation in the introduction of a new group, FocusDriven, which aims to offer support to the families of victims of people injured or killed in accidents caused by drivers distracted by cell phones and other devices. The group, patterned after Mothers Against Drunk Driving, will be effective if it helps raise awareness of the dangers of cell-phone use at the wheel and champions appropriate legislation.

State by state and city by city, lawmakers are getting the message and have banned drivers from texting. So far, 19 states have such laws; 10 others have applied similar laws only to new drivers.

State Rep. Nancy Garland, D-New Albany, has introduced a new, improved version of no-texting legislation that she and others introduced in the Ohio House last year. Her bill offers a clear definition of texting, applies to all drivers and would make infractions primary offenses.

Statewide laws are preferable to the scattering of local ordinances that have cropped up in Ohio and elsewhere, because drivers cannot be expected to know the rules of every city they visit.

Some members of Congress are pushing federal legislation that would impose penalities, in the form of transportation-funding reductions, on states that fail to enact texting-while-driving bans.

As states ban texting at the wheel, further restrictions on cell-phone use while driving can't be far behind, because studies also reveal that talking on cell phones while driving is a greater distraction than most other common diversions, including conversations with passengers.