HOUSTON – Recent deaths blamed on distracted drivers in Houston and elsewhere have led to a broad, national push to ban drivers from texting while driving.

“Cell phone technology is great,” said Osemio Lopez, a lieutenant at the Pearland Police Department.  “[It] keeps us connected.  But, at the same time, it distracts us,” he said.

Lopez said it wasn’t until recently that he noticed so many drivers with their eyes off the road.

“We had a call one night of somebody not driving in a single marked lane,” he said.  “Another driver called it in [as] a possible drunk driver.  The officer stopped the vehicle and found it was a driver who was trying to manipulate two different cell phones,” he said.

Advocates for stricter laws say something has to be done, and they point to a string of sobering statistics.  They say 6,000 people were killed in 2008 because of distracted driving.  A study published over the summer by the AAA found that 35 percent of drivers feel less safe today than they did five years ago.  Eighty-seven percent considered texting while driving a serious threat.

U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said it would be irresponsible for lawmakers not to act.

“I don’t see how you possibly can text and drive,” she said.  “I think texting and driving may be even more dangerous than [using a cell phone] and driving.”

Lee said Congress was already beginning to take action, telling states to ban texting while driving, or face losing as much as a quarter of federal highway funds.

Critics said new laws wouldn’t make the roads safer.

But Lopez, a 15-year Pearland Police Department veteran, disagrees.

“It’d be a lot safer to pull over and take care of your business on your cell phone without endangering yourself or other drivers on the road and if we need legislation for people to do that then I think it’s a great idea,” he said.

Texas banned talking on cell phones in school zones earlier this year. 

Last week, President Obama banned all federal workers from texting while driving on government business.  The U.S. Department of Transportation plans to change federal rules to ban text messaging by truck drivers and interstate bus drivers.