Enterprise Attendance Center freshman Kelsey Lawrence is justlike any other teenage girl with a cell phone: she stays inconstant touch with her friends through text messaging.

But she’s a little different in that her cell phone stays on theseat or in her purse while she’s in the driver’s seat of thecar.

“I do not pick up the phone while I’m driving,” she said. “Itcan cause too many wrecks and deaths. Plus, Momma and Daddy wouldkill me.”

Lawrence, 16, is already a step ahead of her peers who soon willhave to wean themselves from the habit of texting and driving. Anew law signed this past week by Gov. Haley Barbour bans textingfor drivers holding intermediate license or temporary learning ordriving permit and takes effect July 1.

Lawrence said it could end up being a challenge for some of herfriends.

“But I think it’s a good idea,” she said. “Maybe it’ll stopyounger people from having so many accidents and hurting themselvesand other people.”

The law will also add six months to the minimum age forteenagers to get their driver’s licenses. The intermediate license,allowing some unsupervised driving, will become available at 16.The intermediate license must be held for a year, said MississippiHighway Patrol Troop M Public Affairs Officer Sgt. Rusty Boyd.

So the law primarily targets 15- and 16-year old drivers, saidBoyd, but texting behind the wheel at any age is taking your lifein your hands.

“I have to stress that text messaging for anyone in the vehiclewhile you’re moving is a very dangerous, and you’re risking aserious accident,” Boyd said. “It wasn’t illegal up until thispoint, but it’s always been unsafe.”

Law enforcement officials aren’t sure yet exactly how they’llcatch texters, but if they do, the fine can be up to $500. Ifthere’s an accident as a result of texting, the fine could be up to$1,000.

And, Boyd said, just like a situation where reckless driving isinvolved, if there is a fatality in an accident involving textingwhile driving, it could be much more serious than that.

“It’s possible if someone is killed then I’m sure other lawscould apply in addition to this one,” Boyd said. “We’ll probablylook at each situation and figure out how to handle it.”

Whether that means confiscating a cell phone in an accident orsimply asking the driver to be honest about what was distractingthem, Boyd said he doesn’t yet know how troopers will ascertainthat texting caused an accident.

“We haven’t been told exactly how to investigate this or whatwe’re going to do yet,” he said. “It’s hard to say because up tothis point it hasn’t been illegal so we didn’t look at it, but fromnow on as of July 1, we could be looking for evidence of textmessaging. But we have driven down the road and been able to lookinto a vehicle and watch someone do it.”

The law also changed restrictions on the intermediate license,which used to allow drivers with an intermediate license to driveonly from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. unsupervised. Those hours still apply,but legislators have made it so intermediate license holders can beout alone behind the wheel until 11:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturdaynights.