Hi there. Feeling foolhardy?  Not taking enough risks? Looking for a death-defying experience?

Try texting while you drive. It could be the most dangerous thing you can do.

According to the CAA, you are 23 times more likely to be in a crash or near-crash compared with non-texting drivers.

Driving while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated, according to the US National Highway Traffic Administration Safety Administration; in BC where I live, there were 81 deaths in 2012 from distracted driving, compared to 55 from impaired driving.

I can keep throwing stats at you. But I should stop now and concentrate on my driving.

And so should you, if this morning’s commute is any indication. Here’s just a sample of the things we did in traffic today:

While travelling at least 60 klicks an hour, a woman in a Range Rover had the visor down and appeared to be putting on makeup while talking to her friend on her hand-held. As far as I can tell, the Pomeranian in her lap was doing the driving.

A line of people stopped at the red light appeared to be deep in prayer, so deep that the light changed and nobody noticed.  Their faces were bathed in a strange blue glow.

Soccer mom policed a van-load of kids while talking on her hand-held. Yikes.

And it was breakfast time in the fast lane: muffins, very hot coffee, lip-searing burritos and sandwiches,  assorted Tupperware from home, apples oranges , bananas, oh my.

Any one of these distractions has a well-documented effect on your attention span. Yet we continue to drive through a multi-tasking medley of contortions. Our cars do double duty as kitchens, bathrooms, media centres and bedrooms (pets included).

What’s interesting is that with the exception of hand-held devices, most of this nonsense is not cut-and-dried illegal.

“Excuse me ma’am, but that’s a $167 fine for driving with a Pomeranian in your lap. You’re lucky it wasn’t a great dane…”

Nevertheless, it’s dawning on governments that unless they do something soon, we won’t make it through rush hour.

In British Columbia, which has some of the toughest drunk driving laws in North America, the attorney general is aghast that, with one third the population, we have more distracted driving deaths than Ontario.

Maybe that’s because Ontario has already jacked up its distracted driving fine from $155 to $280. In an amusing touché, it goes to $500 if you contest it and lose, which should clear up a lot of nuisance court cases.

BC will probably raise its fines soon, and may even attach points to licenses. Yet you have to wonder if enforcement is the answer. The province issued 51,000 tickets for distracted driving last year, but if this morning’s circus on wheels is any indication, no one has noticed.

Their “minds” are elsewhere.