I am using Zend_Db to insert some data inside a transaction. My function starts a transaction and then calls another method that also attempts to start a transaction and of course fails(I am using MySQL5). So, the question is - how do I detect that transaction has already been started? Here is a sample bit of code:

       try {
                    Zend_Registry::get('database')->beginTransaction();

                    $totals = self::calculateTotals($Cart);
                    $PaymentInstrument = new PaymentInstrument;
                    $PaymentInstrument->create();
                    $PaymentInstrument->validate();
                    $PaymentInstrument->save();

                    Zend_Registry::get('database')->commit();
                    return true;

            } catch(Zend_Exception $e) {
                    Bootstrap::$Log->err($e->getMessage());
                    Zend_Registry::get('database')->rollBack();
                    return false;
            }

Inside PaymentInstrument::create there is another beginTransaction statement that produces the exception that says that transaction has already been started.