Last week AT&T officially launched its latest campaign alerting drivers to the dangers of texting while driving, while urging Americans to pledge to never text and drive.
The “It Can Wait” campaign is focused on educating individuals, with special focus on teens, following survey results that show drivers are 23 times more likely to be in a crash, and teens text five times more a day on average than a typical adult.
As Maria Cardona previously reported on La Plaza, the dangers of texting while driving currently plague all teens, with Latino teens being at higher risk: 54% of Latino teens admit to engaging in the activity, compared to only 41% of white teens and 42% of African-American teens.
To begin reversing this trend – which according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project increased 50% from 2009 to 2010 – AT&T is urging all Americans to TAKE THIS PLEDGE to never text and drive, and make a lifelong personal commitment to help prevent injuries and deaths caused by texting and driving. And each individual can do more:
- Take the pledge
- Share the pledge with your networks, friends and family through Facebook and Twitter—using the hashtag #itcanwait.
- Copy and paste this tweet, or draft your own: “No text is worth dying for. Join me in the @ATT #ItCanWait Pledge Day movement on 9/19 and don’t text & drive! http://go-att.us/pqyr“
- Find out about more ways to get involved!
According to a statistic from the National Safety Council, an automobile crashes and people are injured or die while a driver was texting and driving 100,000 times each year.
Join Latinovations as we stand behind AT&T’s efforts to bring together communities and supporters to put an end to this behavior. Take the pledge and spread the simple yet vital message: When it comes to texting and driving, IT CAN WAIT.
Click here to watch “The Last Text” documentary, featuring real stories about the risks of texting while driving.
I would like to take a pledge cause i believe that a text message can wait until you are off the road
That’s great! Make sure you go to itcanwait.org, take the pledge, and tell everyone in your network to do the same!
No text is worth dying for.