It won’t be long now before Ohio drivers have even more reason to avoid driving distracted. Beginning April 4, a new law will take effect, which gives officers “probable cause” to stop drivers they witness illegally using their cell-

phones or other electronic devices.

“You can’t hold your cell phone in your hand, you can’t talk on speaker phone, you can’t use your body to support that device and talk on the phone, you cannot put any manual input, no

texting, no entering a phone number,” Sgt. Ryan Purpura of the Ohio State Highway Patrol told WDTN in Dayton.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows approximately 3,000 people are killed in crashes involving a distracted driver each year. (In 2015 that figure was 3,526). One in five of those who died in such crashes were not in vehicles. They were walking, riding bikes, or “otherwise outside a vehicle,” according to the CDC.

“At 55 miles per hour, sending or reading a text is like driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed,” the CDC reports. “Hands on the wheel. Eyes on the road.”

In fact, while the new law will give law enforcement officers probable cause when an electronic device is involved, the CDC says there are three kinds of distractions: visual — taking your eyes off the road; manual — taking your hands off the wheel; and cognitive — taking your mind off driving.

“Any of these distractions can endanger you, your passengers and others on the road,” according to the CDC.

Perhaps the new law will make a few more drivers think twice before driving distracted, when it comes to cell hone use.

But it is important to remember drivers should avoid all the ways in which our focus is taken away from the road. Yours and the lives of others on (or near) the road might depend on it.