Using a cell phone to send text messages while also trying to operate a motor vehicle is such an obviously bad idea that it hardly seems necessary to pass a law to ban the practice.

Unfortunately, we can’t depend on people’s good judgment in this matter.

Finding the money to pay the state’s bills will be the primary topic for the upcoming session of the Kansas Legislature, but texting and driving also will be on the agenda. After its chairman found himself stuck behind a texting driver going 45 mph on a Kansas interstate, members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee decided this issue needed their attention. Their plan to sponsor a bill to ban texting while driving already has the support of Gov. Mark Parkinson.

Many, many Kansas drivers share the frustration of Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg. While it’s true that texting on a cell phone is only one of many distractions that can impair drivers, the growing number of people who accept the practice makes it worthy of special attention.

A recent study by the Pew Research Center looked specifically at texting and teen drivers, but its findings give a pretty good overview of the problem. One in four teens ages 16-17 said they have texted while driving. As of Friday, the 16-year-olds in that group would be in violation of the new Kansas graduated driver’s license law, which bans the use of any wireless electronic device by drivers under 17.

The tolerance of teens for the practice nonetheless is disturbing. One high school boy told surveyors that texting while driving was “fine,” adding that “I wear sunglasses so the cops don’t see (my eyes looking down).”

If you wonder where teens get the idea that texting while driving is OK, take a look at their parents. In the same Pew survey, 48 percent of youngsters ages 12 to 17 said they had been in a car when the driver was texting. Often the driver may be another teen, but it also can be a parent. One teen interviewed for the survey reported his father “drives like he’s drunk. His phone is just like sitting right in front of his face, and he puts his knees on the bottom of the steering wheel and tries to text.” Now there’s a parent who knows how to set a good example.

Enforcing an anti-texting law would pose difficulties, but it wouldn’t be any harder than enforcing the state’s current seat belt laws. Simply making texting while driving illegal would be a strong enough incentive for some drivers to quit.

With the addition, as of Jan. 1, of Illinois, Louisiana and Oregon, 22 states now ban text messaging for all drivers. Kansas should try to nip this problem before it gets any worse.