Colorado lawmakers are citing a University of Utah study on cell phones and driving in an effort to pass a law banning the use of cells while behind the wheel of a car.

A recent study in Utah indicated that talking on a cell phone while driving is just as dangerous as driving under the influence and that both acts made drivers four times more likely to become involved in an accident.

The same University of Utah study indicated that drivers talking on a cell phone were far more distracted than drivers actually having a conversation with someone in their vehicle.

Somehow a UofU study showing driving-while-phoning is as dangerous as drunken driving shocks everyone but our home-state lawmakers. Utah has no such cell-phoning-while-driving law and has booted every attempt to get one. In fact, a couple of years ago, the Legislature took away the right of local government to pass such laws.

As usual with the Utah Legislature, the ban on local cell phone-driving laws had little to do with science and a lot to do with politics of the personal. A constituent complained to a House member that she had gotten a ticket while driving in a town that driving while cellularly drunk.

The Colorado proposed law is being driven by a recent accident: Nine-year-old Erica Forney of Fort Collins was run over in the bike lane by a woman in an SUV who was talking on her cellphone.

That's pretty personal.