Distracted drivers  including those sending and reading text messages from behind the wheel  caused the deaths of nearly 6,000 people in 2008, according to Wednesday data from the Department of Transportation.

Distracted drivers  including those sending and reading text messages from behind the wheel  caused the deaths of nearly 6,000 people in 2008, according to Wednesday data from the Department of Transportation.

"Every single time someone takes their eyes or their focus off the road - even for just a few seconds - they put their lives and the lives of others in danger," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at the opening of a two-day D.C. summit on distracted driving. "Distracted driving is unsafe, irresponsible and in a split second, its consequences can be devastating."

Driving distractions can also include eating, drinking, conversing with passengers, or interaction with in-vehicle technologies and portable electronic devices.

In addition to the almost 6,000 people who died last year, more than half a million people were injured by distracted drivers, according to Wednesday findings from DOT and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Driver distraction was involved in 16 percent of all fatal crashes last year.

On any given day, there are about 800,000 cars on the road being driven by someone using a handheld cell phone. The worst offenders, DOT found, were young drivers  men and women under 20 years of age, but the problem is present among all age groups.

"We now know that the worst offenders are the youngest, least experienced drivers," said Secretary LaHood. "Unfortunately though, the problem doesn't end there. Distracted driving occurs across all age groups and all modes of transportation, from cars to buses and trucks to trains."

The department has commissioned a new study from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which will study the connection between cell phone use and traffic accidents, LaHood said. Data will be gathered from now through June 2010.

Members of Congress have already crafted legislation dealing with this issue. In July, Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, introduced the Alert Drivers Act, which would require states to enact driving while texting or e-mailing bans or risk losing federal funds.

Within six months of the bill's enactment, states would be required to put such bans in effect or risk losing 25 percent of their annual federal highway funding for each year they fail to comply.

"We need a ban on texting while driving in every state and we need it now," Schumer told summmit attendees.

A similar initiative was used when trying to impose a national drinking age, Schumer said. In 1984, Congress enacted a law that withheld 10 percent of state highway funds from states that failed to increase their drinking age to 21. Within five years, all U.S. states had complied, Schumer said.

"Sometimes the states need a little tough love to get them to go along," he said.

A July study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that texting while driving increases the risk of crashing by 20 times.