For Alan Hyman, driving while sending and receiving e-mail on his cell phone is no big deal. At 47, this commercial driver and licensed pilot figures he has the ability to exchange electronic messages while operating a vehicle.
"It's a skill. You've got to glance down, you've got to look up," the Dulaney Valley resident said. "It's all skills and training."
He says he's never had an accident, not even a close call, while text messaging. What concerns him is all those other people out there text messaging on the road.
"You see people weaving all the time," Hyman said. "You look over and he's busy doing something. Usually, he's dialing his cell phone and he's driving off the road."
Hyman is among the one in five U.S. drivers between the ages of 18 and 60 who practices what is known as "driving while texting," according to a survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance.
The percentage swells among younger drivers, with 37 percent of those ages 18 to 27 saying they swap messages while on the road, the survey found. The figure drops to 17 percent among drivers 28 to 44. Only 2 percent of those 45 to 60 admitted to the practice.
Reports of accidents in which text messaging was a factor have prompted legislatures in several states, including Washington, Arizona, New Jersey and Connecticut, to consider bans on driving while texting.
The issue has come up in Maryland only in the context of a broader cell-phone ban, which the General Assembly has rejected.
Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said texting while driving is a particular concern for parents of teenagers.
"They just text message constantly," she said. "They're accustomed to being in constant communication with one another."
This culture of constant connection has contributed to a generally high level of distracted driving - already elevated by the pervasive chatter of drivers on cell phones.
"Text messaging actually takes a higher level of consciousness than it does to simply be talking on a cell phone," said Washington Rep. Joyce McDonald, a Republican who sponsored legislation that has cleared her state's House of Representatives. "It takes more concentration to compose, edit, type and send a message on a BlackBerry or a cell phone than it does to have a conversation while you are driving with both hands on the wheel. Text messaging takes your eyes off the road every time you punch into your BlackBerry or cell phone."
