Wireless company AT&T has launched a national “It Can Wait” campaign to raise awareness of the risks of texting while driving. Other major wireless carriers such as Verizon, T-mobile and Sprint have joined the campaign as well.

The idea of this campaign is to educate teenagers on the risks of texting while driving. The company has an entire website devoted to advocating safe driving and gives facts about texting and driving and ways to prevent it. The website has a texting and driving simulator that connects to your cell phone to make it realistic. The website even has a pledge that teenagers can sign to promise that they won’t text and drive. Currently they have an end goal of one million people signing their pledge to not text and drive.

“I plan on making the pledge because you hear the commercials about young people passing away and it’s really sad,” sophomore Hime Kebede said.

AT&T did more than just create a website advocating safe driving as well. They have conducted multiple surveys, as well as created documentaries to show teenagers real life examples of what could happen if you text and drive.

AT&T’s latest documentary, “From One Second to the Next,” follows two victims of distracted driving and one victimizer of texting and driving. One of the men interviewed, Chandler Gerber, was texting when he crashed into an Amish buggy in front of him, killing three people.

“Don’t ever do it, it’s life, you get one chance, and you gotta live with the choices you make,” Gerber said.

In addition to the documentaries and surveys AT&T has created, they have also created an app to prevent teens from texting and driving. The app, AT&T DriveMode, allows users to send automated texts from their phone, as well as silence their phone so they aren’t distracted behind the wheel.

“The stories the ‘It Can Wait’ campaign tells are really eye-opening, like the kid who lost half of his diaphragm and it makes you rethink texting and driving. You realize a text isn’t worth a life,” senior Theresa Nguyen said.

People are also encouraged to use their texting and driving simulator, which uses both your cell phone and your online computer. The game sends you texts and while you are reading and sending text messages you are forced to try and stay inside your lane and not crash- just like real life. The purpose of the game is to demonstrate not just teenagers to, but adults too, how it’s impossible to text and drive safely.

Celebrities and athletes are also joining the “It Can Wait” campaign. The celebrities include Demi Lovato, and country music singer Tim McGraw. McGraw also wrote the song “Highway Don’t Care”, which debuted at number 13 on the Billboard Country chart. The song promotes safe driving and tells of a father’s worry of his daughter texting while driving. The players of the Carolina Panthers football team have also joined the pledge.

To sign the Million Person Pledge scan the QR code on the sidebar next to this story.