Manvel plans to implement an ordinance that would ban text messaging while driving, and Friendswood is also interested in such a measure.

Pearland has not yet discussed a ban on texting while driving, City Manager Bill Eisen said. It does not condone the practice and is aware that a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that when the drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting.

“It could well be something that we would bring up at some point,” Eisen said. “If so, it would because of those types of studies that are out there.”

Manvel’s city attorney is working on an ordinance that would prohibit texting while driving, Mayor Delores Martin said. It should be presented to City Council for approval before the end of this month, she said.

Violators would face a Class C misdemeanor and could be fined up to $500, Martin said.

“People know incredibly dangerous it is,” Martin said of texting while driving. “If they don’t have enough sense not to do it, we need to remind them not to do it.”

Manvel’s push to ban texting comes on the heels of Galveston last month becoming the first city in Galveston County to implement such a measure. Its ordinance prohibits using wireless communication devices to view, send, or compose an electronic message while operating a motor vehicle.

Violators face a Class C misdemeanor and can be fined up to $500.

“Texting is a huge distraction and they shouldn’t be doing it while driving,” said Galveston City Councilman Tarris Woods, who proposed Galveston’s ordinance. “At the end of the day, safety rules.”

A new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute found that laws that prohibit drivers from using hand-held phones and texting didn’t significantly reduce vehicle crashes.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced recently that commercial truck and bus drivers cannot text while driving. He has also said that he supports a national ban on texting while driving.

Locally, Martin said she has seen drivers texting while on Texas 6.

“This is only because we are really concerned about the health and safety of our citizens and the people driving through Manvel,” she said. “If they have become careless in their driving habits then we need to remind them that they need to driver safer.”

Friendswood City Council discussed the possibility of a texting ban last year when it had the city install the signs required to enforce a new state that bans using all but a hands-free cell phone while driving in a school zone, Mayor David Smith said.For the sake of safety, he said he is hopeful that the state Legislature will consider a state law that completely bans texting while driving, a measure that 19 states and the District of Columbia have adopted, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Smith said he will ask his City Council in the next year to consider such a city ordinance.

“I think that’d be worth putting on our radar,” Smith said.

Smith said he has heard texting while driving compared to driving drunk.

“You have slower reaction times,” he said. “That’s nothing to sneeze at.”