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Dead Teens' Final Texts Star in New Ad Campaign

Campaign pushes to stop texting while behind the wheel

By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 8, 2010 8:13 AM CST

(Newser) – "No text is worth dying over" is the message of a new campaign to stop young drivers from texting behind the wheel. The campaign, being launched today by AT&T, features parents of teenagers who died texting, like 18-year-old Mariah West, who flipped her car into oncoming traffic while texting with a friend, and the final messages the teens received before dying. The last message West got was "Where U At"—not, as the campaign hopes to demonstrate, a sentence worth dying over.

The campaign will use everything from Facebook to the protective clings on new cellphones to try to overcome teens' feelings of invulnerability and convince them that texting and driving is a deadly mix. It comes as a growing number of states pass laws banning texting while driving. Still, many young drivers insist "'I know it's dangerous, but I've figured out how to do it safely' or 'I can put the phone on top of the steering wheel and do it,'" an AT&T rep tells USA Today.

Dec 15, 2009, Tina Derby sends text messages while driving in Concord, NH. Derby loves the ease and speed of texting, even while driving, and sees no need to pull over to tap her fingers on her phone.
Dec 15, 2009, Tina Derby sends text messages while driving in Concord, NH. Derby loves the ease and speed of texting, even while driving, and sees no need to pull over to tap her fingers on her phone.   (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
New driver Brandi Eadie, 16, looks at her cell phone to read a text message as she drives through a rubber-cone course in Seattle, Jan. 6, 2010 to demonstrate the dangers of phone use while driving.
New driver Brandi Eadie, 16, looks at her cell phone to read a text message as she drives through a rubber-cone course in Seattle, Jan. 6, 2010 to demonstrate the dangers of phone use while driving.   (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 25 comments
AlsoPollyanna
Mar 10, 2010 5:08 PM CST
The time to ban ALL cell phone use by drivers is NOW!

See http://myplace.frontier.com/~D.../

to print "Turn Off Cell B/4 Driving" reminder stickers on Avery 5260 labels; 720 of them! to give in pages of 30, strips of 10, or one at a time. Perfect to stick on cells or driver's visors to remind those we love to Stay Safe! 30 labels will be left to print directions to the site to ask others to print MORE labels... Let's make our roads safer TODAY!

Also join Facebook group Drive Safely: Don't Use Your Cell Phone While Driving
PrestoEnigma
Mar 9, 2010 3:04 PM CST
There really doesn't need to be anything done. People that txt and drive will get what's coming to them someday, just like drunk drivers.
793tango
Mar 8, 2010 11:38 PM CST
No such thing as 'texting and driving safely'. I drive for a living and just this morning I, my coworker and my boss nearly got sideswiped by a jerk in a van who was texting while driving. Las summer I got into a car with someone from another 0office and SHE texted and drove at 70 MPH ON THE HIGHWAY. WE nearly hit a number of vehicles but she refused to stop doing it. When we got back to the office I told my boss I would NEVER get into a vehicle with her ever again. A month later she was fired. No idea why.......
 

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