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Madison — Drivers will have to keep their eyes on the road - not on their texting devices, under a bill signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Jim Doyle.

The Democratic governor said the texting-while-driving ban, overwhelmingly passed by the Legislature last month, sends a message to drivers.

"This is a law that has us catching up with technology," Doyle said. "This law really directs everyone's attention to how dangerous this practice is."

The law will take effect Dec. 1 and makes Wisconsin the 25th state to pass similar legislation, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. Penalties for sending text messages while driving will be $20 to $400 - the same as the penalties for inattentive driving.

Critics have questioned whether a separate law with the same penalties for texting is needed and whether law enforcement will find it burdensome to try to prove whether a driver was texting or simply talking on his phone.

State Patrol Superintendent David Collins, a supporter of the bill, said he was confident that patrol officers would be able to deal with enforcement of drivers who break the law.

"If they've made a mistake, we deal with it; if they're intoxicated, we deal with it; and if they're texting, we'll deal with that," Collins said, adding that officers probably will give a grace period to drivers at first.

The texting-while-driving ban is so-called primary enforcement, meaning law enforcement officers can ticket a driver solely for texting while driving. The law provides exceptions for the drivers of emergency vehicles, people using popular global positioning devices and for drivers who text message in cars using voice recognition equipment.

Doyle said he eventually would like to see a state requirement that drivers use hands-free devices for cell phone calls as well.

Governors Highway Safety Association executive director Barbara Harsha said in a statement Wednesday that she expected another 10 to 15 states to act on a texting ban within the next year. Washington state was the first state to approve a texting ban in May 2007.

Of the 25 states with texting bans, 20 are primary enforcement. In the other five, a driver must be pulled over for another offense before he can be cited for texting while driving.

A recent report by the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety says that while behind the wheel, those who use phones and electronic devices on the road drive much like motorists impaired by alcohol. The group said 5,870 people were killed and 515,000 injured in the United States in 2008 in crashes in which driver distraction was reported to police.

Another report released last summer by Virginia Tech University's Transportation Institute showed that punching the keypad on a cell phone while driving increased the risk of a crash or near crash 2.8 times more than an undistracted driver.

In other action Wednesday, Doyle signed bills that would:

• Direct the state to develop a proposal to seek up to $3.6 million more in federal money for nonprofits such as the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin in Milwaukee that help patients with HIV cope with the disease.

• Curb schools' use of race-based names, nicknames, mascots or logos unless they could show in a hearing the depictions did not promote discrimination, student harassment or stereotyping. The bill would allow residents of a school district to complain to the state Department of Public Instruction if they believed a race-based team name promoted stereotypes and the state schools superintendent then would decide whether the name needed to be changed.

• Allow drivers in southeastern counties of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha and Sheboygan to have required emissions tests for their car done at local repair shops. Drivers must get cars built in 1996 or later tested every two years to be able to renew their vehicle registrations with the state, and to do it, they must go to one of nine locations in the area.