Thursday, September 6, 2012

AT&T calls on nation's drivers to pledge: NEVER TEXT AND DRIVE



Americans urged to make lifelong commitment on Sept. 19

Wireless provider AT&T*, seeking to bring attention to a serious road-safety problem urges all Americans to pledge to stop texting while driving, and then to join with others Sept. 19 to make a lifelong commitment to never do so again.

AT&T, its employees and other supporters are calling on all drivers to go to www.itcanwait.com to take the no-texting-and-driving pledge, and then share their promise with others via Twitter (#itcanwait) and Facebook. The pledge effort is part of the company’s public awareness campaign aimed directly at stopping the dangerous practice of texting while driving.

More than 100,000 times each year, an automobile crashes and people are injured or die because the driver was texting while driving, said Cynthia Marshall, President AT&T North Carolina, citing a statistic from the National Safety Council. 

“No text message is worth a life,” Marshall said. “But every day lives are being forever changed and families torn apart by someone texting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. With summer vacations ending and students preparing to head back to school, we are stepping up our efforts to help everyone understand how dangerous texting-while-driving truly is. We want texting and driving to be as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving and we are calling on others to join us in this effort. 

"North Carolina lawmakers prohibited texting and driving three years ago," said Gene Conti, North Carolina Secretary of Transportation. "But it still happens every day in every city across this state.  AT&T's 'It Can Wait' campaign is taking an important leadership role to help curb this epidemic that puts every driver or passenger at risk."



 

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