Texting while driving is a serious problem in North Carolina and across the nation and teens at East Forsythe High School are leading the cause to reduce teen driving fatalities due to texting and driving. North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue recently declared a “No Texting While Driving Pledge Day” in conjunction with AT&Ts “It Can Wait” campaign. At least 1,600 students and staff from the high school signed pledges stating they would not text while driving. The pledge drive consisted of an online form or a hard copy document that could be signed by students and faculty.
Thus far more than 500,000 people around the country have signed the online pledge at the campaign’s website. The students at the high school located west of Fayetteville were first encouraged to sign the pledge by watching a short documentary film about the dangers of texting while driving. According to a report, the first story in the film involves a young girl who died on her way to graduation because she was distracted by trying to text and drive at the same time. The video is designed to have an impact on young drivers and can be viewed on YouTube.
One East Forsythe High School senior stated that texting and driving is a serious problem because there are so many kids who just can’t seem to put their phones down. Because it is such an immediate form of communication many teens expect to send and receive texts without any delay and seem to think it is an urgent matter that can’t wait. It can wait. Ask any number of parents who have lost a child through distracted driving, which can include any number of activities from texting to talking to operating a GPS device.
The National Safety Council said that greater than 100,000 car accidents involving injuries occur on our nation’s roadways every year that are a direct result of texting while driving. Any of these can result in a personal injury or wrongful death that can devastate a family. One survey conducted by AT&T discovered that 97 percent of American teenagers know the dangers of texting while driving and almost half of them do it anyway. And texting while driving has been against the law in North Carolina for a few years now. No text message is as important as a person’s life.
Source: Winston-Salem Journal, “Editorial: Teens leading way on ban on texting and driving,” Sept. 25, 2012
Our North Carolina law firm handles an array of personal injury claims, including car accidents that are the result of drunk or distracted driving. To learn more, please visit our texting and distracted driver accidents web page.