Attention Teen Drivers: Put Down the Phone!
Great Plains Auto Body Encourages Teen Drivers around the Country to Put Down the Phone and Enjoy the Once-in-a-Lifetime Experiences.
Prom and graduation season is here! With it comes the excitement of sharing photos, videos and texts with friends and families. But it also is accompanied by an elevated risk for teen drivers, particularly when they are sharing those photos and texts while driving.
Great Plains Auto Body, a member of the National Auto Body Council (NABC), is teaming up with colleagues in the collision industry to help reduce this danger on the road by partnering with AT&T to support its It Can Wait® campaign.
Great Plains Auto Body is offering a variety of National Auto Body Council- It Can Wait® window decals, key tags and other items to promote and help remind teens not to text and drive at its Omaha and Council Bluffs locations. For more information, call 402.334.7100.
“The collision repair industry sees firsthand the negative consequences of distracted driving and want to help people reduce their risk of being in an accident,” said Matt Hanson, General Manager at Great Plains Auto Body. “Through the It Can Wait campaign, we can educate drivers about the dangers of texting and driving, and engage drivers, their families and friends in putting down the phone and focusing on the road.”
The National Auto Body Council’s Distracted Driving Initiative offers tips for teen drivers to reduce their driving distractions during prom and graduation season:
- Take – and share – your photos and videos before you get in the car
- Designate someone who isn’t driving to manage the GPS
- Have the driver install an app that silences incoming texts and notifications – and lets the sender know that the recipient is behind the wheel
- Consider a car service if the budget allows
Information about one of the don’t text and drive apps, AT&T DriveMode® which silences message alerts and auto-replies when driving to let friends and family know you can’t respond is available at the www.ItCanWait.com.
A recent study of teen drivers from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that distraction was a factor in nearly 6 out of 10 moderate-to-severe teen crashes, which is four times as many as official estimates based on police reports. Researchers found that drivers manipulating their cell phone (includes calling, texting or other uses), had their eyes off the road for an average of 4.1 out of the final six seconds leading up to a crash. The researchers also measured reaction times in rear-end crashes and found that teen drivers using a cell phone failed to react more than half of the time before the impact, meaning they crashed without braking or steering.
The It Can Wait movement is making a difference. One-in-three people who’ve seen the texting while driving message say they’ve changed their driving habits. Together, advocates have raised the awareness of texting while driving to 97 percent or higher in every audience the campaign has polled. To take the pledge and get more information, visit www.ItCanWait.com.
—
photo credit: 2013 Prm-3979.jpg via photopin (license)
