You’re driving down Vestal Parkway to campus and you feel the urge to respond to the constant vibrating of your phone. It may be your mom checking up on you, or your best friend updating you on the latest gossip, but whatever it is, you may believe that it cannot wait until you reach a red light.

Well according to new state laws, everyone is going to have to learn to resist the urge and delay their curiosity until they turn off their cars. Fourteen states, including New York and Illinois, have passed no-texting-while-driving laws.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 34 percent of teens aged 16 to 17 have texted while driving.

“Texting right now is perhaps the most egregious act of distracted driving that involves technology that is occurring on our roads today,” Henry Haupt, spokesman for the Illinois secretary of state’s office, told ChicagoNow.com Monday. “When an individual has their hands off the steering wheel, their eyes are off the road and they’re busy composing a message. The question is, ‘Who’s driving the car?’”

Although it is difficult to catch texters, law enforcement is not taking this new danger lightly.

President Obama has expressed serious concern on this issue and passed a law forbidding public transportation drivers from text messaging while driving as well.

While this is considered a growing epidemic, New York state views texting while driving to be only a secondary enforcement law, meaning that an officer must find another offense before pulling someone over for text messaging.

Currently, offenders will be charged a fine of $150.

Due to the increasing number of frequent texters, and the number of accidents caused by phone distractions, people are beginning to feel unsafe being on the road with people that are most likely texting in their cars.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 5,870 people died and an estimated 515,000 were injured last year in distracted-driving accidents last year alone.

“I believe that this should be a primary enforcement law, because it is more dangerous than talking on your phone; your eyes are not focused on the road or your surroundings,” said Samantha Azoulay, a junior accounting major.

Young drivers are more susceptible to getting into accidents than adults who are more experienced, yet these are the drivers who are text messaging more regularly.

“I’ve been in cars where the drivers have been texting and literally feared for my life because they were so consumed by the text and paying zero attention to the road,” Azoulay said.

Many people readily admit to having text conversations while driving and not thinking twice about it or feeling any sort of guilt for doing something so dangerous.

This is becoming a major concern for people all over the country. People who text while driving change speeds and tend to weave in and out of lanes while driving, similar to people driving while under the influence. And it has been proved in simulations that it is a deadly distraction.

While law enforcement is attempting to shrink this issue, people need to be more aware of the outcomes of text messaging, or doing anything distracting, while driving. While driving, one’s only focus should be the road. While this is easier said than done, any form of distraction could lead to serious accidents.

“Everyone knows that it’s dangerous,” Gustavo Vaisman, a junior comparative literature major, said. “But the trick is convincing people that they aren’t special and are not, in fact, able to multitask while driving.”