World’s Four Largest Mobile Phone Companies Collaborate against Texting while Driving Campaign

The use of mobile phones while driving has been causing a lot of traffic accidents in the United States. According to reports, about 3.5% of vehicle accidents are due to texting while driving. Just recently, the four largest cellular companies in the U.S. teamed up for one reason and that is to make it known to mobile phone users the hazards of using their gadgets while driving, and to compel them to stop the dangerous habit

“It Can Wait”

The campaign was initially consolidated under AT&T’s slogan, “It Can Wait.” Teaming up with AT&T for this project are Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile together with several hundreds of organizations aiming for the same goal. The initiative of the four companies to fight texting while driving may be seen as an unusual act, not mainly because the top four competing mobile companies are collaborating with one another but due to the fact that they are putting out a warning against the use of their own products. This is comparable to tobacco and liquor companies advertising limitations on the use of their own products.

Four is better than one

This is not the first time that AT&T and the other three companies advertised a campaign against texting while driving. It was noted that in 2009, Verizon and AT&T already had existing advertisements while in 2005, Sprint moved ahead by initiating a program for teens about proper driving.

According to AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson, the issue at hand needs to be dealt with immediately. He also mentioned that consolidating all their resources into one effort is better than four companies doing their own thing and sending out different messages.

Reports stated that the campaign would launch the advertisements not only on national television but also on Goodyear’s three airborne blimps. And it does not end there. The campaign also plans to convene community events, different social media outreach activities, and a national tour regarding driving which specifically targets teens.

Teens are more prone to accidents due to texting while driving

A research conducted by Cohen Children’s Medical Center showed that texting while driving became the number one cause of death among teenagers in the past few years in the US. It was estimated that about 3,000 teenagers die every year from using their mobile phones while on the road and behind the wheel. This number is relatively higher than that of teenagers whose cause of death is drinking while driving. This is also the same when it comes to injuries sustained in car accidents.

Even kids can be aware about the hazards of texting while driving

An American girl has gotten the attention of the media when she presented her own anti-texting campaign. Tori Mangino, a Senior Girl Scout working to get her Gold award is now working with mobile phone giant AT&T in creating video presentations showing the dangers of texting while driving. Mangino is collaborating also with Will Craig as the face of the campaign. Craig has sustained injuries in a texting while driving incident.

Photo Credit: No Texting While Driving Sign