No life is worth losing over sending a text message.

This issue hits home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. In November of 2009, I urged our City Council to pass a ban on cell phones while driving. My request fell on deaf ears. A year later, I tried again, and this request also failed.

A Coeur d'Alene city attorney arrogantly responded that there was no such need for such a ban, since we already have inattentive driving on the books. He didn't state that our police aren't giving inattentive driving tickets for cell phone use. That city attorney didn't mention that a wise defense attorney can easily defend an inattentive driving ticket by saying that cell phone use while driving is legal in Idaho. If inattentive driving laws are adequate, then why have 37 states enacted cell legislation?

What has happened since I made my request? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notes a disturbing trend - in the last year, there has been a 50 percent increase in cell use on our highways. The NTSB now bans texting for federal employees.

My own cell phone carrier, ATT, urges restraint with cell phones, noting that a person is 23 times more likely to get involved in an accident while texting. My car insurance company, 21st Century, explained that there are 1.6 million accidents each year caused by cell phone use. That figure means we average 4,500 accidents per day.

While you are driving, you can now pay your bills, send emails, check your stock market report, shop online, conduct research on the Internet, and play such distracting games as "Words" and "Angry Birds."

A University of Utah study found that hands-free cell phones are no safer, and what is the reason? It's called the "gaze effect." Drivers look but they don't see because they are distracted by the conversation.

Be honest cell phone drivers, have you ever gone through a light, and couldn't remember if the light was red or green? Have you driven for 15 minutes and you can't remember what you passed by?

After two failed attempts by our Legislature in the past, Senator Jim Hammond just announced that he believes Idaho will enact texting legislation this year.

A texting ban is not enough, a ban is needed on all cell use on the highways. You remain a distracted and dangerous driver while engaging in that conversation and that includes hands-free use - the Utah study confirms this. Senator John Goedde needs to first read that study.

Our tax avoidance expert from Athol, Rep. Phil Hart, says drivers will work harder to avoid being detected, so he doesn't want the ban. Using Hart's logic, we shouldn't have DUI laws, because after all, drivers go to great measures to avoid being detected, such as driving on the back roads.

The Utah study found that cell phone drivers are MORE DANGEROUS that drunk drivers on the road.

Do you want some local statistics? On Dec. 4, 2009, 16-year-old Spokane native Kalene Palanak died while talking to her boyfriend on the cellphone - she ran into a tree. Meridian, Idaho, they passed a texting ban, called Kassy's law - in memory of a teen who died while texting. In Caldwell, Idaho, a teen died when he drove into a school bus while texting.

A friend of mine who lives in Coeur d'Alene lost three members of her family in Kalispell when a distraught teen sent a dozen texts to her boyfriend - she then crossed the center line and killed three members of a loving family including a mother, an unborn child and a pre-teen returning from a concert. Would you change your mind, Mr. Hart, if that were your family? No father, mother, or child is exempt from the harm texting causes.

Nationally, a Harvard study estimated that in 2002, that 2,600 people died nationally.

The use of cell phones on our highways is completely out of control. It has gotten far worse than when I first sought an ordinance. Young people at first, and now everyone else, believe it is their God-given right to use their cell phone while they are at the wheel. I ask you, is that conversation you are having (such as what shall we get for dinner?) so vitally important, that you can't PULL OVER and then take/make the call?

Must Idaho always be the last one to come out of the dark ages and see that this bad habit is killing people? Will it take the death of a loved one from our Legislature, before we wake up and pass effective legislation?

In a world where technology is ever increasing, it is not technology and its effectiveness that I am attacking; but rather the uses of such technology.

Steve Bell is an attorney and a Coeur d'Alene resident.