Texting And Driving: How The Hashtag #X Could Help Keep Millions Safe
Around 23 percent (1.3 million) of all automobile collisions in the United States involved a cell phone in 2011. People who text and drive spend at least five minutes looking down at their phone while they should be looking at the road, which means they drive the length of a football field at 55 mph with their eyes pretty much closed. In hopes of dissuading people who think texting and driving isn’t that big of a deal, AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign is asking all drivers to take the pledge not to text and drive by pausing the conversation with #X.
Join over five million people, including celebrities such as Demi Lovato and Tim McGraw, by taking the pledge to tell your friends you’re getting ready to drive via #X. No text is worth jeopardizing your life or the lives of your fellow drivers, and by typing #X you won’t have to worry about your friends thinking that they’re being ignored.
An estimated 82 percent of young Americans between ages 16 and 17 own cells phones. On average, 34 percent admit to texting and driving. What’s worse is that 77 percent of young Americans say they are very or somewhat confident in their texting and driving abilities, while 55 percent say it’s easy to text and drive. Teens and young adults aren’t the only ones prone to texting and driving. Fifteen percent of young Americans say they have seen at least one of their parents text while driving and 48 percent of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 say they have been in a car with a driver who was texting.