Text-messaging while driving will be illegal in Virginia after Wednesday and on North Carolina roadways on Dec. 1, but at least one area law enforcement spokesman considers the ban just one piece of a bigger puzzle.

While Sgt. Mike Conroy of the Virginia State Police welcomes the ban on texting in that state, he points out that many more distractions will remain in the average vehicle to compromise the motoring public’s safety.

“Virginia Tech did a study,” Conroy said, “and basically what they found was 80 percent of all fatal crashes or near-crashes were due to distractions.”

Conroy, of the police agency’s Wytheville division — which covers operations in 15 Southwest Virginia counties including Carroll and Grayson — also cited cell-phone use in general while behind the wheel along with other distractions from GPS systems or car stereos.

“When you think of all the electronic gadgets in cars today, we need to be putting less distractions in there instead of more,” he added.

Text-messaging while driving, which new laws in both Virginia and North Carolina are targeting, involves brief written messages typed onto the screens of mobile phones and exchanged with others over cellular networks. Studies have shown texting to have a larger negative impact on motorist safety than driving drunk, with some 14 states banning the practice to date.

“One trooper was telling me he had a gentleman under arrest and he was texting while handcuffed behind his back,” Conroy said of the popular practice.

After Wednesday, persons caught sending text messages or emails while driving in Virginia will face a $20 fine, $50 for a second offense, which some critics have charged is insufficient to discourage the practice.

Last year, 28,395 crashes occurred in Virginia involving driver distraction. Of those, 114 people died and 14,480 were injured.

The new law passed by the Virginia General Assembly allows exceptions for emergency vehicle operators, someone reporting an emergency or texting from a parked vehicle. Also, sending text messages while driving is a secondary offense, meaning a law enforcement officer must have a different reason to stop or arrest a driver.

Conroy believes the new law points to the need for drivers to keep their priorities in order, regardless of the distraction.

“As far as texting, I think it’s a little bit more age-specific,” the Virginia State Police spokesman said of the pastime popular among younger people. A recent study by the AAA organization discovered that 46 percent of teens admitted to being distracted behind the wheel due to texting, although texting is increasing among adults.

Hazards from distractions can cut across all generations, Conroy stressed.

“People just need to remember that their vehicle is potentially a 2,000- or 4,000-pound missile if your full attention is not focused on it,” he said. “You may be able to (overcome) that distraction 100 times before it catches up to you.

“Eventually, I believe these distractions are going to catch up to anybody.”

Conroy believes that while modern technology is responsible for a wide range of in-vehicle distractions, it also is a solution to the problem. For example, if a motorist receives a text message or cell-phone call while driving, there is usually a means for recording that so the driver can retrieve word of someone trying to reach him or her after pulling off the road.

“That’s the wonderful thing about technology,” the police spokesman added. “We can use it rather than letting it use us.”

North Carolina Ban

North Carolina became the 14th state to ban texting while driving earlier this month due to action by the state General Assembly. The law here won’t go into effect for another five months, however.

This state was the seventh in the country so far in 2009 to take such action.

Gov. Bev Perdue signed the measure into law on June 19.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.