iDriveFocused.com. Driving while distracted is bad for your health. Here's why.

 In the past couple of weeks, texting while driving has been front page news as more and more state legislatures pass measures banning or restricting it in an effort to prevent distracted driving.

Yesterday, new legislation prohibiting texting while driving went into effect in Colorado and North Carolina.  Additionally, North Carolina has an another bill under consideration in its House of, which would go a step further and prohibit the use of handheld mobile phones for all drivers.

New York and Rhode Island also recently joined the list of states who prohibit texting while driving, with bans going into effect on Nov. 1 and Nov 10 respectively.  Wisconsin could be next - its Senate recently passed a bill making texting behind the wheel illegal, and similar legislation is pending in its Assembly.

Back in May 2009, FOX news published a report on state laws on texting and cell phone use while driving.  Then, 11 states and the District of Columbia had laws banning texting while driving.  But 21 states had no legislation prohibiting or restricting either texting or talking on your cell phone while driving whatsoever - meaning that even school bus drivers could legally text behind the wheel.  Scary stuff.

Flash to today, and the list of states with outright bans on texting has nearly doubled. The Governors' Highway Safety Association lists these states and the District of Columbia as banning texting while driving for all drivers:

1. Alaska
2. Arizona
3. Arkansas
4. California
5. Colorado
6. Connecticut
7. Illinois
8. Louisiana
9. Maryland
10. Minnesota
11. New Hampshire
12. New Jersey
13. New York
14. North Carolina
15. Oregon
16. Rhode Island
17. Tennessee
18. Utah
19. Virginia
20. Washington

An additional 9 states ban texting while driving for novice drivers, and Texas prohibits school bus drivers from texting behind the wheel.