New Public Awareness Campaign -- Don't Text and Drive

Area wireless provider NorthwestCell and the Missouri Highway Patrol recently embarked on a public awareness campaign to bring attention to a serious road-safety problem, texting while driving.

Together they are calling on drivers to pledge not to text and drive, and share their promise with their friends and family. In the upcoming months, the two entities will partner to visit all Atchison, Gentry, Holt, Nodaway, and Worth County schools to conduct awareness programs for area high school students.  They share the common goal of promoting safe and healthy behaviors among our area’s youth. 

“More than 100,000 times each year, an automobile crashes and people are injured or die while a driver was texting and driving,” said NorthwestCell General Manager Roger Bundridge, citing a National Safety Council statistic. “Distracted driving is an epidemic on our roadways, and we need people throughout the area to take action in their communities to help put a stop to it”. 

The joint “DNT TXT N DRV” public awareness campaign centers around the simple message “Stop the Texts to Stop the Wrecks.” “Our goal is to educate our youth, and discourage texting while driving,” said Bundridge.  “We will be circulating t-shirts, awareness wrist bands, and posters, and hosting school assemblies in order to promote our effort. Other businesses like NuCor, LMP began their own campaigns this year, so we encourage others to join the effort as well.”

Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55 mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field. A texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into an accident than a non-texting driver. Of those killed in distracted driving crashes, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction.

Among tips to stop texting and driving, put your phone where you can't get it or look for it. Turn your notifications off; the less you hear your phone, the less tempted you'll be to respond while you're driving. If you're driving with a friend, lend your phone to your friend and use them as a designated texter.