Texting and driving caused almost 400,000 injuries and
deaths last year across the United States and is quickly becoming America's
fastest growing killer, but there's a growing mission to drive those numbers
down.
Colorado Springs, CO (MMD Newswire) April 26, 2011 --
What started off as a wearable reminder to be text free while driving has grown
into a national mission to make the roads safer for everyone. Earlier this
year, a Colorado family started giving local teens a "TXTNG KILLS"
thumb band to make them aware of the dangers of texting and driving. Just a few
months later, national attention of the texting crisis has the Edgin family
sending out over 30,000 bands per month and working with schools, community
groups and police agencies across North America to collect 1,000,000 signatures
on their text free driving pledge.
"Texting and driving makes you 23X more likely to
crash and causes more accidents than drinking and driving", says Robert
Edgin (founder of the Million Pledge Mission), "even though it's illegal
to text and drive in most states, very little has been done to educate drivers
of just how dangerous it is - until now." The laws across the US and
Canada have become increasingly strict in dealing with texting and driving and
a number of drivers have been charged with vehicular homicides in recent years
for deaths they caused while texting behind the wheel.
Texting and driving
TXTNG KILLS thumb band
The problem, according to Edgin, is that an overwhelming
number of drivers make texting a normal part of their daily commute and end up
spending more time looking at their phones than they spend looking at the
roads. "Texting takes your eyes off the road for an average of 5 seconds
at a time. At 55 mph, that's the same as driving the length of a football field
blind", says Edgin.
The Million Pledge Mission kicked off the first week of
April to educate drivers across North America of the dangers of texting and
driving and collect 1,000,000 signatures from drivers who commit to be text
free behind the wheel. Schools, colleges and a number of police departments and
community groups are giving away "TXTNG KILLS" thumb bands to drivers
who sign the pledge as a wearable reminder to stay text free while driving.
Anti-texting campaigns have grown by the thousands across the nation over the past
12 months and schools are making an extra effort to promote text free driving
as prom and graduation seasons (the 2 deadliest weekends of the year for teen
drivers) is getting under way.
"This is a problem that every driver in the country
has to deal with every time they get in their car", says Edgin. "Most
of the people who die in texting and driving accidents are just innocent people
who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's time for people to do the
right thing and put an end to all of these preventable accidents." You can
sign the pledge online at www.millionpledgemission.com
or by downloading the pledge to print and sign it.
About the Million Pledge Mission
The Million Pledge Mission (www.millionpledgemission.com) is
run by the TextingThumbBands company. TextingThumbBands is a family run company
that provides silicone TXTNG KILLS thumb bands as well as text free driving
pledges and informational material to individuals and groups across North
America.
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