What will it take to get people to pay attention to the task of driving and not be distracted by cell phones, text messaging and messy cheeseburgers.

Two bills signed last week by Gov. Pat Quinn are a good start.

House Bill 71 prohibits text message while driving. House bill 72 prohibits drivers from using a cell phone while driving through a construction zone or school zone.

Less than 20 states have enacted text messaging bans. It's good for Illinois to show leadership in this area. However, it will take more than changes in laws to make our roads safer. It will take changes in attitudes.

Laws can help change attitudes. They make the point that a certain activity is dangerous, even if police obviously can't be everywhere to enforce the bans.

But laws must be accompanied by public information campaigns that not only make people aware of what's prohibited but also why it is prohibited.

Results of a study of truck drivers by Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute found that the drivers were 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash or near crash than someone not texting while driving. The same study showed that dialing a cell phone while driving multiplied the crash risk by six times.

The Virginia Tech study involved actual drivers on the road with in-cab cameras recording their faces - and how long they took their eyes off the road.

A University of Utah study involving college students in driving simulators found those drivers were eight times more likely to crash while text messaging than someone not texting.

Text messaging is a relatively new - but rapidly growing - phenomenon. But common sense should tell drivers that anything that takes their eyes off the road for several seconds is an accident that might not wait to happen.

Yet in a survey in which nearly 90 percent of respondents said texting while driving is dangerous, 21 percent said they had sent or received text messages or checked e-mail while driving. Apparently more people need to be convinced that it's not just other drivers who are dangerous while texting.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is organizing a summit to bring together transportation officials, safe-driving advocates, law enforcement officials and others to seek solutions to the problem.

In announcing the plans, LaHood cited several accidents in which text messaging was apparently a factor, including a fatal crash involving a Eureka teenager in late June.

Don't wait for the Illinois law to take effect Jan. 1. Stop text messaging now and, while you are at it, cut down on other driving distractions - regardless of whether they are illegal.