It is plainly simple: Don’t text while driving. If you get a text to which you must respond, pull your automobile over.

Minnesota has a ban on texting while driving. In August of last year it became a misdemeanor. Presently, 17 states and the District of Columbia ban texting while behind the wheel. It is a primary offense, meaning that law enforcement officers do not need another reason to pull you over. They can pull you over for texting.

A Nationwide Insurance poll found that 20 percent of drivers are texting while driving, and, among drivers ages 18 to 24, 66 percent are. Those figures represent a lot of drivers.

What’s more, the Transportation Research Laboratory in the United Kingdom found that reactions times were worse among text-message senders than among drunken drivers.

The reaction of a text user was 35 percent less than normal, while the reaction of a drunk was 12 percent less than normal. Marijuana stoners were 21 percent less than normal.

Hopefully, these statistics will give you reason to pause the next time you wish to text. If it doesn’t, perhaps this will: Insurance companies check your phone records to see if you were tinkering with your handheld toy when you slammed into that car in front of you.