Earlier this week AT&T released a new video as part of its “It Can Wait” ad campaign. The video depicts a man driving while talking on the phone with his wife and a woman driving with her young daughter. The woman glances at her phone for just a second to look at social media comments on a photo that she posted of her daughter. In that second, she loses control of her car and crashes head on into the man’s pick-up truck. After showing the horrific crash, the video then proceeds to reverse the crash in slow motion and goes back to before the woman looks at her phone. If she hadn’t taken that one glance at her phone, then she could have saved not only herself and her daughter, but also the man whose life she endangered. I highly encourage everyone to watch this video because its powerful message and frightening images just might make you rethink checking your phone the next time you're driving.
The “It Can Wait” message is an important one because most campaigns out there have been aimed towards combating texting and driving, but they ignore some other deadly phone issues such as checking social media notifications or even looking down to see who is calling when the phone rings. On my way to work this morning, I saw six people using their phones. I don’t know if they were texting, checking Facebook, contemplating answering an incoming call or what, but what I do know is that seeing six people, all middle-aged adults, check their phones while driving my short 20-minute commute to work, is disgraceful.
Over the weekend of July 11, my home state of New Jersey faced one of its highest death tolls in several years due to car accidents. Just on Saturday alone, there were four accidents that resulted in seven fatalities. In the U.S., the No. 1 leading cause of car accidents is distracted driving, a cause that is very much avoidable. Drivers who use a handheld device while driving are four times more likely to get into a car accident, according to drivers.com. If you just put your phone away and focus on the road, you will be at a lower risk of getting into a car accident and could possibly save your own life and the lives of others. I understand that FOMO is a very real thing, but trust me, whatever is popping up on your phone will still be there when you safely reach your final destination. Or in the rare instance where you are going to receive a possibly life-changing phone call or just cannot wait to read a text message, pull the car over in a safe location and do so.
Let’s all band together and put our phones away while driving in order to create a safer driving environment for everyone! Remember that one glance, one quick peek, one second, could be the difference between life and death while driving.
