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AT&T says 'It Can Wait' with texting and driving campaign
Photos courtesy of AT&T -- Wil Craig, 22, suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2008 after the driver of a car in which he was a passenger sent this text message. He has spent the last two years helping AT&T spread the message that behind-the-wheel text messages and phone calls can cause permanent injury and even death.
By Conner Hammett, chammett@starlocalnews.com
Their stories are different, but the message is the same.
Their lives have been forever changed by a simple text message. Now they are using their personal experiences to ask people around the world to think twice before texting and driving.
Their stories have formed the basis of a campaign by AT&T to raise awareness of the irreversible damage behind-the-wheel cell phone use can cause.
Craig hit the tree on his right temple and entered what would be an eight-week coma.
"When I woke up, I didn't know how to walk, talk or anything," he said. "I was never supposed to walk or talk again."
In 2010, Craig told his story to a film crew for part of an AT&T-sponsored documentary warning against the dangers of texting and driving.
After four years of intensive physical therapy, Craig has regained his balance and ability to walk, traveling the country to ask teens and adults to never text while driving.
"I want to urge teens, anyone who drives, just to put the phone down," he said. "Think about the passengers and the lives of others. ... What's worth it, the text message, or everything you have now?"
In Collin County alone, 635 accidents have been precipitated by cell phone use since 2007. Two of the accidents have been fatal, and 15 caused incapacitating injuries.
Drivers are 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash while text messaging, said Lonnie Haschel, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman. The average time a driver's eyes are removed from the road to send or receive a text is 4.6 seconds -- at 55 miles per hour, enough time to cross the entire length of a football field.
"Your attention's not on the roadway, it's on that phone and on that text message," Haschel said. "Driving while using a cell phone in itself decreases the amount of brain activity on driving and increases it on the text message, so it makes sense for folks to really decrease those distractions and keep their eyes on the road while driving."
The problem isn't just texting, said Officer Andrae Smith of the Plano Police Department. The increasing popularity of smart phones means more and more drivers are checking emails and social media sites while driving, ramping up the distraction even more.
In 2011, 73 of Plano's 4,824 motor vehicle crashes were related to cell phone use. So far, 2012 has seen 2,789 crashes, 45 of which were the result of cell phone use. No fatal accidents during the past two years are believed to have been caused by cell phone use.
"I can tell you from a professional standpoint, being involved in traffic enforcement on a day-to-day basis, to just being in my personal vehicle and witnessing individuals who sit at a green lights for an entire cycle because they're texting or dialing a phone number or playing a smart phone game instead of paying attention to the roadway," he said.
AT&T recently extended its awareness campaign with tens of millions of dollars dedicated to raising awareness through web, television and social media advertising. A website, www.itcanwait.org, has also been launched, along with a campaign to get as many Americans as possible to pledge by Sept. 19 to never text and drive.
The company has also launched a new application for Blackberry and Android smart phones that allows drivers to temporarily disable all incoming calls and text messages while driving. The person attempting to contact the user automatically receives a message notifying them the user is driving and cannot access their phone. The driver receives all missed calls and texts after exiting their vehicle and turning off the application.
AT&T employee Shavonne Jones said she came up with the idea for DriveTime while helping her nephew contact AT&T representatives for a class project on texting and driving. Three months after submitting the idea, which she said came to her in a dream, she was in front of the company's CEO pitching the idea.
The application launched for Blackberry in August 2011 and has been downloaded nearly 100,000 times since its launch.
"It's a free app that literally saves lives," said Jones, who lost a personal friend of 32 years in a texting-and-driving incident during the application's development. "Right before you're about to drive, you can program your own message. It's like an out-of-office alert on your email."
More technology is on the way. Engineers at the AT&T Foundry in Plano recently completed an application that allows parents to link their phones to those of their children and receive an alert every time they place a call or text while in a vehicle. The parents can accordingly disable the text message and phone call functionality on their teen's phones.
Today, Craig lives in Louisville, Ky. His most recent speaking trip was to Dallas, where he shared his story with AT&T employees.
"I realized after awhile that I never can get everything back, but I prayed and I've been getting a lot of stuff back," he said. "I can stretch and put my arms up for a hug. I can ride a bike. I can cook. I live on my own. Someone who does all that now may even drive. To lose that, that's ignorant."
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
I hate att wrote on Aug 24, 2012 10:48 PM:
" I wish AT&T would "text and drive" right off a cliff. WHERE do they come off with this "The MORE You Spend" fiasco! These days we are trying to cut back and here we have good ole ma bell, making impossible! THANKS A LOT "
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