AT&T Awards Youth Who Pledge Not to Text and Drive

It's National Youth Traffic Safety Month (who knew?), and AT&T is doing its part to help our young people stay safe on the road. The telecom company has donated $250,000 to organizations dedicated to preventing distracted driving. Text messaging has become a major distracted-driving hazard in recent years.

As part of its "Txtng & Drivng" campaign, AT&T awarded the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), ConnectSafely, Enough is Enough, Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), iKeepSafe, Put on the Brakes, Inc., Stay Alive Just Drive and Teens in the Driver Seat. The campaign’s message, "It Can Wait," emphasizes that “no text message is worth the risk of sending or reading while behind the wheel,” said Laura Sanford, president of the AT&T Foundation.

May is National Youth Traffic Safety Month because this month sees a lot of kids on the road, driving to events like prom and graduation festivities and to summer jobs and on road trips. Since AT&T launched the campaign in March, the "Txtng & Drivng" Facebook page has received more than 13,000 visitors, many of whom have pledged to put their phones away while they're behind the wheel.

While the campaign is a widespread effort to educate drivers of all types of the dangers of texting while on the road, the company emphasizes that youth are the most at risk.

"Our nation’s teens are the most critical audience to reach," said Sanford. "AT&T’s contributions will help empower the recipient organizations to continue spreading the important message."

To help craft the right message to reach teens, AT&T created a Teen Advisory Council to offer feedback on the campaign. The council is composed of 10 teenage children of AT&T employees from New Jersey, Texas, Georgia, Illinois and California.

Photo by mrJasonWeaver via Flickr.