President Barack Obama puts a ban on texting while driving government vehicles.

In a statement establishing the order, Obama wrote that the federal government should establish leadership in this area in order to bring safety to roads and highways.

‘‘Every day, federal employees drive government-owned, government-leased, or government-rented vehicles or privately-owned vehicles on official government business, and some federal employees use government-supplied electronic devices to text or e-mail while driving,” states the order by way of explanation. ‘‘A federal government-wide prohibition on the use of text messaging while driving on official business or while using government-supplied equipment will help save lives, reduce injuries and set an example for state and local governments, private employers and individual drivers.”

Federal agencies must comply with the order within 90 days of its issuance. Certain employees, including agency heads, those who are involved in protective, law enforcement or national security responsibilities, are exempt from the decree. For more information on the specifics of the order and who is affected, visit http:⁄⁄www.whitehouse.gov⁄the_press_office⁄Executive-Order-Federal-Leadership-on-Reducing-Text-Messaging-while-Driving⁄

According to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, text messaging while driving has already been banned in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Utah, Washington and the District of Columbia. Additionally, novice drivers are banned from texting while driving in Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Cell phone use while driving on an Army installation, which would include text messaging, is prohibited by regulation and is subject to citation.

Capt. Jennifer Gazdowicz, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall assistant chief of police operations, said officers make perhaps six to seven stops a week on base to cite someone for talking on a cell phone while driving. She said no statistics had been compiled for incidents of texting while driving.

‘‘It’s distracting because you have to take your hands off the steering wheel to tap out a sentence. You’re not paying attention to the road,” Gazdowicz said.

‘‘When you’re driving and involved with texting you aren’t paying attention to what you should be doing,” stressed Jacqueline Gandy, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Safety Office safety specialist. ‘‘Cell phone users often slow down traffic, she said, because they’re engrossed in conversation rather than the road in front of them. That causes accidents.”

Citing a study conducted in Britain, Mary Thomas, an industrial hygienist with the base Safety Office, said driving while texting was judged to be more dangerous than driving under the influence in terms of distraction.

The report, conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory, found that text messaging increased reaction time while driving by 35 percent, compared to 12 percent for drunk drivers and 21 percent for marijuana users.

While text messaging while driving is a relatively new phenomenon, the Automobile Association of America notes that preliminary studies of truck drivers indicate that text messaging while driving increases crashes and near crashes by a factor of 23.

A word has even been coined to encapsulate the distracted state of mind: ‘‘intexticated.”

Sgt. Robert Knauer of the Delaware Army National Guard probably summed up the dangers of texting while driving best in a commentary in the July 2009 issue of ‘‘Knowledge,” the official magazine of the U.S. Army.

‘‘Some aren’t satisfied until they’re trying to steer, hold a cell phone and key in a message all at one time. Can you do that with two hands?” he asks. ‘‘More importantly, can you do that with one brain.”