As Lil Wayne’s “3 Peat” floods out of Garrett Petty’s Jeep Grand Cherokee, he reaches for his iPhone. He holds the device high above the dash, darting his eyes back and forth from screen to street.

Petty, Topeka sophomore, says he reads and sends text messages at eye level because there, he can still safely see the road.

Luckily for Petty, texting while driving hasn’t caused him an accident. However, many other Americans haven’t shared in his fortune. Texters have run stoplights, crashed and worse, said John Walls, vice president of public affairs for the CTIA Wireless Association, an international organization representing all sectors of the wireless communications industry. People who text and drive are 23.2 times more likely to have an accident than a driver without a distraction, according to a study released by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

Texting-while-driving is such an alarming threat that the Wireless Association and the National Safety Council (NSC) have launched a national video campaign against it, Walls said. He said the campaign started in major U.S. cities and would reach television channels in Lawrence in the next couple of weeks.

Walls said the 30-second public service announcement was startling, but less graphic than a controversial PSA aired in Britain.

“We happen to believe that was way over the line,” Walls said of the British PSA video. “The message really gets lost in all that chaos and activity. We think we have communicated that same message in a clear and more effective way.”

Deb Trombley, senior program manager of the NSC, said while the focus of the PSA was texting-while-driving, the message — “On the road, off the phone” — was intentionally broad. That way, the message also applies to all in-car cell phone use, she said.

“The use of cell phones while driving continues to go up,” Trombley said. “Text messaging over the past two years has skyrocketed.”

The number of text messages sent monthly in the U.S. jumped from 7.2 billion in 2005 to 135.2 billion in 2009, according to the CTIA Web site.

Walls said the addition of e-mail and Internet applications now available on some phones were other cellular distractions.

Sergeant Michael Monroe of the Lawrence Police Department said one of the negative effects he and other local officers have noticed from this surge was the growing number of texting-related traffic accidents in Lawrence.

“We get a lot more texting excuses than we used to,” Monroe said. “Usually people don’t admit it, but what will happen is the other person who crashes into them says, ‘That person was texting while they were driving and pulled out right in front of me.’”

Monroe said when Lawrence officers discovered that a driver involved in an accident has been texting, they issued a ticket for inattentive driving. He said officers also noted on the citation that the driver was texting when the crash occurred.

Eighteen states, including Colorado and Iowa, have implemented laws that prohibit texting-while-driving, according to Trombley. In the 2008 Kansas legislative session, representatives of the Transportation Committee considered crafting such a law, said Rep. Dan Kerschen (R-Garden Plain), a member of the committee. He said when the legislature reconvenes in January, however, budget issues would likely postpone further discussion about a texting-while-driving law until February.

“No doubt it’s going to be a topic that’s going to be addressed,” he said.

Last spring, then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius approved a bill that prohibits those with learner’s permits or other restricted licenses from operating cell phones or text-messaging devices while driving until six months until after they turn sixteen. The law will go into effect January 2010.

Until a more comprehensive ban is passed in Kansas, Monroe said he hoped that the new PSA would reduce the number of Lawrence accidents from texting-while-driving.

“A lot of people think they can drive safely while texting,” Monroe said. “And that’s simply not the truth. Even if it’s just for a few seconds, those few seconds can make it unsafe for everyone around you.”

Petty said even if a law eventually prohibited texting and driving, drivers would still probably ignore it. He admitted that he, too, would probably still text and drive at times. He said the law would force him to revise his method, however.

“Obviously mine would be pretty blatant with my cell phone out up over the steering wheel,” Petty said.

— Edited by Brenna M. T. Daldorph