In the Wall Street Journal Opinion page, Joseph White wrote an op-ed piece on 15 September 2009 entitledDriving While Texting: Is It the New DWI? He mentions:

Here's one issue in these contentious times that almost everyone appears to agree on: Driving while typing out text messages on a mobile phone is dumb, potentially deadly and should be banned.

CTIA-The Wireless Association, once opposed bans on using mobile phones to talk or text. Now the association supports bans on texting and is officially neutral on other limits to mobile phone use.

But auto makers, and some safety researchers, are gearing up to argue to federal safety regulators—at this month's summit and beyond—that with the proper technology and under appropriate conditions, communicating from a moving vehicle is a manageable risk.

States are addressing the texting while driving (TWD) problem, many in the past year. About 1/3 of them have laws against it now; many others will soon be there. By the time the US Congress gets around to it, most states will have taken matters into their own hands, where it belongs.

The wireless and auto manufacturing industries want a federal DWT law in order to make their lives easier. It is easier for them to build, test and certify products according to one law instead of 50 laws and their subtle uniquenesses.

Despite this, we do not to federalize what rightly belongs to the domain of the states.