Utah has got it goin on.

Let me preface this by saying I have not been paid by the state of Utah, I am not Mormon, and I have only been to Salt Lake City once, at which time I ordered a glass of white wine with my dinner and was politely told that “(ahem) You are in the city owned by that very large church across the street so we will not sell you alcohol, but we will certainly pray for sinners like you.” Those may not have been the waitress’s exact words, but I’m fairly certain that’s what she meant.

So now, almost 15 years later, here I am cheering Utah on because despite their confusion about white wine, they are showing some serious common sense.

In his NY Times article about a law that recently took effect there, Matt Richtel explains it this way:

“The new law, which took effect in May, penalizes a texting driver who causes a fatality as harshly as a drunken driver who kills someone. In effect, a crash caused by such a multitasking motorist is no longer considered an “accident” like one caused by a driver who, say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead, such a crash would now be considered inherently reckless.

“‘It’s a willful act,” said Lyle Hillyard, a Republican state senator and a big supporter of the new measure. If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to text and drive, you’re assuming the same risk.’”

Now that makes sense to me. And I text. And I will admit that I have texted while driving. I am busy and efficient and hey, look at me multi-task. But that’s a bad one. I was lucky and realized I was insane and I put my darn phone down. Isn’t it bad enough that we’re flying along at 75 miles an hour engrossed in a conversation on our cell phone? Do we really need to answer our e-mail and texts on the road, too?

No, we don’t. We really don’t.

We need to put our phones away. We can put them in the glove compartment or in the back seat or at the bottom of our purses. But we should put them away for so many reasons. We should put them away if for no other reason than our children are watching, and they’re learning and you know how that works. Despite our best efforts they will often do as we do and not as we say.

And, God forbid they ever text while driving. It’s not worth the price, friends. Don’t you agree?