Last week, Attorney Martha Coakley joined forces with The Ad Council and other State Attorney Generals nationwide to mark the start of National Youth Traffic Safety Month will the inauguration of a new Texting and Driving Prevention Campaign called “Stop The Texts Day.” The Ad Council says that nearly 500,000 adults each year are injured dure to various forms of distracted driving, including texting, mobile instant messaging, updating social media platforms, sending photos, etc. In commemoration of the inaugural day, a new public service announcement featuring NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne was released.
“Young adults now spend more time texting, emailing, and accessing data on their phones instead of talking, but when they are behind the wheel of a car, they cannot give in to the urge to constantly respond,” AG Coakley said. “Distracted driving is dangerous and sometimes fatal.”
“I am glad that I was able to be a part of this project. The Ad Council folks do a good job of bringing awareness to causes such as this. Hopefully this will help people realize how dangerous texting while driving can be,” said Kasey Kahne, NASCAR driver.
Here is the Public Service Announcement that Mr. Kahne did for the campaign:
The goal of this new campaign is to teach young drivers that texting and driving is a lethal combination. In July 2010, Massachusetts became the 29th state to ban texting while driving in addition to banning cell phone use and driving for those under the age of 18. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states that distracted driving has become the number one killer of young drivers in the United States. It reports that in 2010, more than 3,000 people were killed and an additional 416,000 were injured due to distracted driving, which includes texting while driving. A recent national survey conducted by the Ad Council founded that even knowing the dangers, some 60 percent of young adult drivers, between the ages of 16 and 24, said they have texted while driving.
“Our latest research shows that young adult drivers continue to text and drive even with the knowledge that the act can seriously injure or kill others or themselves,” said Peggy Conlon, president and CEO of the Ad Council. “With the help of NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne, we are sending a wake-up call to young adult drivers that if you take your eyes off the road to read or respond to text messages there can be unfortunate consequences. We would encourage everyone to participate in Stop the Text Day to help us end the dangerous act of texting and driving.”
Agents here in the Commonwealth, might want to remind their insureds that this month celebrates National Youth Traffic Safety Month. In addition here are some tips from the Ad Council on How to Prevent Texting and Driving:
Agents can view all of the commercials for “Stop The Texts” on the campaign’s YouTube Page.