AT&T, Maryland MVA Team Up To Prevent Distracted Driving With New Simulator!

Citing new research that shows 7-in-10 people engage in smartphone activities while driving, 1 AT&T and the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) today teamed up with AT&T* to address a dangerous practice—smartphone driving distractions.

To drive home the message and these new findings, AT&T brought a virtual reality simulator to the MVA Center in Beltsville, allowing the center’s customers to experience firsthand how dangerous it can be when you take your eyes off the road and direct them onto your phone.

“We teamed up with the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration to help remind all Maryland drivers that smartphone driving distractions are deadly. No text, email, or other interaction with a smartphone while driving is worth taking a life. We want Marylanders to keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel,” said La Tara Harris, AT&T’s regional director for External Affairs in Maryland.

Harris said AT&T kicked off a regional tour during an event yesterday in Washington, DC. During the next two weeks, the simulator will stop in Wilmington, DE; Philadelphia, PA; West Deptford, NJ; and South Brunswick, NJ. Other stops are planned in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia through the end of August.

Samsung, Bose and Google are supporting the immersive tour experience, which is delivered through Samsung Gear VR, with premium sound from Bose QuietComfort® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones.

It Can Wait is a national movement urging drivers to visit www.ItCanWait.com, where they can pledge to keep their eyes on the road, not on their phone, and share their pledge with others via Twitter (#ItCanWait) and Facebook. What started as a campaign focused on not texting and driving has now expanded its focus to the broader dangers of smartphone use behind the wheel. Since its launch in 2010, the campaign has:

• Helped drive awareness of the dangers of texting while driving to about 90% for all audiences surveyed.
• Inspired more than 6.5 million pledges not to text and drive.
• Worked with departments of transportation in Texas, Kentucky and other states on research that suggests a correlation between It Can Wait campaign activities and a reduction in crashes.