Tracy Temple says her cell phone is her lifeline.

Temple, 24, of Coon Rapids, sends more than 70 text messages a day from it, even when she's driving to and from her job as a pharmacy technician in Roseville. She says she's good at it and doesn't need to look at the phone while her thumb dances over the keypad.

A no-texting-while-driving law that goes into effect on Aug. 1 won't change her life much at all, Temple says. "I know that sounds bad," she said, "but it'll probably just make me look to see there aren't any cops around first."

The Minnesota law isn't meant to target only young people who are texting behind the wheel: Sending e-mails on BlackBerrys or surfing the web on iPhones also will be prohibited. Enforcement might be a challenge -- like the seat-belt law, people couldn't just be pulled over because they are suspected of texting.

"I know there are technicalities about how any secondary offense is enforced," said Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, who sponsored the legislation, "but it can be done.

"The goal here is to send a strong message about traffic safety."

For many Minnesotans, the law is late in coming.

Minnesotans have watched teenagers statewide die in accidents due to distractions. For others, it's unlikely to alter the behavior of serial texters who see it as a vital method of communication.

"What really matters is that you're risking the lives of your passengers and those of the drivers around you," said John Fineberg of St. Paul, who usually talks on a headset while driving and has never texted while driving. "It's very selfish behavior."

A close call

R. C. Glanzer of Minneapolis was hurtling down Interstate 494 recently when he heard the familiar ring for an incoming text message on his cell phone. He checked the message, looked up, and immediately had to swerve onto the shoulder. Traffic had suddenly come to a complete stop in front of him.

He never did it again.

"Comparing it to basically anything else I've done in the car, texting is the most hazardous," he said. "I've had more close calls texting than anything else."

According to a 2007 survey by the American Automobile Association and Seventeen Magazine, 61 percent of teens admit to risky driving habits. Of that 61 percent, 46 percent text while driving and 51 percent talk on cell phones.

Katherine Burke Moore, deputy director of the Office of Traffic Safety, said texting-related crashes are unlikely to be reported since drivers aren't likely to admit that they were texting.

"We forget that driving is already a multi-tasking activity," she said. "Even when we do it every day, we're checking mirrors, scanning around the car, and watching for brake lights. Any other distraction is unsafe."

Texting could already be reasonably prosecuted under existing careless driving laws, Hornstein said, but he felt it was important to send a message that this specific practice is dangerous on the road.

Lt. Mark Peterson of the State Patrol called the law "another tool in the toolbox that we look at to deal with inattentive driving" and said that the law's existence alone should help "gain compliance."

After Washington and New Jersey, Minnesota is the third state to approve the restriction. In Minnesota, violating the law will be a petty misdemeanor, and fines are set in each jurisdiction.

'A very deadly thing'

In Minneapolis, driver's education courses already teach teens the dangers of distracted driving, according to Bill Wodarski, Minneapolis Public Schools' driver's ed coordinator.

He called cell phones "one of the greatest distractions that's ever been invented."

Minnesotans under 18 are already prohibited from talking on cell phones and driving, he said, which is one reason texting is so popular for teens.

Elise Reller, a junior at the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, says it's "pretty scary" to drive on a freeway and try to text.

"I get really nervous about it," she said. "But if I'm at a stoplight and there's six lanes of traffic that go before me, it's hard to control yourself sometimes when some good gossip rolls around."

To highlight the dangers of driving distracted, proponents of the no-texting law point to a high-profile car crash in September that killed two Minnetonka High School seniors.

Kylie Grayden, 17, was driving to a bonfire when she was distracted by her iPod. The car went off the road and rolled, killing Grayden and passenger Kelly Phillips, also 17, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. Grayden's cousin survived, and has said that Grayden had also used her cell phone before the crash.

"The problem that we have is that kids don't take it seriously," Wodarski said. "The hardest thing we do in class is to try to get kids to realize that this is a very deadly thing that they could be doing, and they've got to take it seriously."

Patrick Lee contributed to this report. Emily Johns • 952-882-9056