In fact, according to a new $6 million dollar study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, texting while driving increases your chances of crashing by 23 times (see table below; click to enlarge).

Apparently, drivers take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds when composing text messages–enough time at typical highway speeds to wreak all manner of havoc.

“Texting should be banned in moving vehicles for all drivers,” the study concludes, adding that it “has the potential to create a true crash epidemic if texting-type tasks continue to grow in popularity and the generation of frequent text message senders reach driving age in large numbers.”

We need a $6 million study to tell us this? Why hasn’t texting while driving been banned already?

There is no good news right now, it seems. The bubble is burst.

“It’s pretty clear that demand is going to soften across the board for every company–it doesn’t matter if you’re selling to consumers or companies,” Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz told the Financial Times earlier this week. “[Many start-ups that emerged in the recent boom will end up] spattered on windshields and radiator grills and be forgotten.”

[Image Credit: Audiophile & Synergy Industries]

PREVIOUSLY:

• Google’s New Corporate Philosophy: “You Can Lose Money Without Doing Evil”
• Wall Street: Way Down in the Hole
• Analyst: The Great Dark Times Cometh!
• Wall Street: Give Me Something to Stop the Bleeding
• GOOG at $398? Clearly, You’re Dyslexic
• WaMu: Epic Bail
• Ballmer: Better Safe Than Lehman Bros.
• Lehman Brothers: $2.5 Billion for a Bankruptcy Well Done
• Here’s $39 Billion in Recognition for Your Hard Work on the Forthcoming Financial Crisis
• Weekend at Bernanke’s II
• Weekend at Bernankes

(Many thanks to HeWhoCannotBeNamed for the tip.)