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No more excuses. It\u2019s time to stop texting and driving. While we\u2019re all saying we\u2019ve stopped, a new poll by AT&T proves otherwise.<\/p>\n
According to the National Safety Council, approximately 210,000 accidents in 2011 involved a driver who was texting. Not scary enough? How about the fact that 9 drivers a day are killed by distracted driving? That\u2019s what the Center for Disease Control<\/a> reports. Yet every minute of every day thousands of drivers have their phones in their hands instead of their hands on the wheel. This epidemic is getting, well, out of hand.<\/p>\n As part of their \u201cIt Can Wait\u201d<\/a> campaign, AT&T has taken a lead in the charge toward changing our distracted driving habits. You\u2019ve probably seen their emotional commercials where family and friends share their stories of loss as a result of texting behind the wheel. As a next step to raise awareness, AT&T polled 1,000 adults about this dangerous behavior. According to a story published today by\u00a0CBS New York<\/a>, the cell provider discovered that nearly 49% of those polled admitted to texting while driving. Embarrassingly, this is 6% higher than the number of teens who admitted to texting. Yet of those polled, 98% said they knew it was dangerous. So, unfortunately, adults are not doing a very good job of setting a safe-driving example for the younger generation.<\/p>\n What now? While legislators nationwide scramble to think up new ways to promote safety and discourage this dangerous habit, there\u2019s one simple way for all of us to take action: Put down your phone. To hold ourselves accountable, we can take a pledge, like the one supplied by AT&T, and publicly state our intent to drive safer.<\/p>\n