AT&T Brings State-Of-The-Art Simulator To Northern California In Effort To End Texting And Driving

AT&T's It Can Wait Campaign Encourages Students to Pledge Not to Text and Drive

SAN FRANCISCO -- Feb. 20, 2015: If the ring, beep or buzz of your cell phone triggers an intense urge to respond, and you find yourself reaching for the phone – even when you're driving – you're not alone.

A new survey commissioned by AT&T* and Dr. David Greenfield, founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Connecticut School of Medicine, found that twice as many people as self-reported cell phone addiction are showing compulsive phone behaviors – with three-in-four people admitting to at least glancing at their phones while behind the wheel.

What can happen when you text and drive? Teens and adults alike will be able to experience firsthand the dangers of texting and driving as AT&T brings its innovative It Can Wait driving simulator to schools and other locations throughout Northern California.

The simulator is an interactive, 3-D console akin to an arcade-style racing game. Participants sit behind the wheel of the simulator and try to maneuver around obstacles while texting on their own phones. If the driver speeds, goes too slow, or crashes, the simulation ends to demonstrate that it's impossible to be an attentive driver while texting. During each simulator event, participants and onlookers will be encouraged to take a pledge that they will never text and drive.

Simulator Tour Schedule The It Can Wait simulator will make more than a dozen stops, including:

Saturday, February 21 – Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco

Wednesday, February 25 – We Day, SAP Center, San Jose

Tuesday, March 3 – Santa Rosa, local school

Friday, March 6 – Chico, local school

Week of March 9 (final date TBD) – Sacramento Capitol Building, West Lawn

Media advisories for selected events are forthcoming.

Why It Can Wait Texting while driving is involved in more than 200,000 vehicle crashes each year, often causing injuries and deaths.1 AT&T wants to drive home the message that texting and driving endangers your life and the lives of others through the It Can Wait campaign, a national movement tapping into the power of social media and personal networks to make texting and driving as unacceptable as drinking and driving.

Drivers can visit ItCanWait.com, where they can pledge not to text and drive, then share their pledge with others via Twitter (#ItCanWait) and Facebook. The website also offers educational resources, including a documentary featuring families whose lives changed forever because of crashes caused by texting and driving.

Learn More For more information about It Can Wait and the simulator, visit ItCanWait.com.

1 National Safety Council