On June 16, Gov. Susana Martinez kicked off W82TXT, a new campaign against texting while driving.
W82TXT encourages New Mexico residents to take a pledge against distracted driving.
“I pledge to never text and drive,” the pledge reads. “I pledge to put my phone down while in the car. I pledge to never drive distracted. It’s not worth dying for.”
Gov. Martinez, Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, the New Mexico Department of Transportation, 2KASA Fox and KRQE News 13 helped sponsor the initiative.
Parker Harms, News 13’s creative services director, said brightly colored silicon thumb bands are also a part of the campaign and serve as a visual reminder not to text and drive.
“It makes you think, because it’s very difficult (to text) when you feel them and you see them,” she said.
Harms encourages groups to meet and talk about the consequences of distracted driving and would love to see UNM students get involved the campaign.
“We’re eager to have as many citizens as possible participate in this,” she said.
Bill Anderson, KRQE’s resident general manager, said news stations often report on vehicle fatalities related to texting and other forms of distracted driving, and they wanted to do something positive to help prevent the problem.
“Prior to doing this, we spoke to the governor and the mayor and law enforcement, and we determined this is just a really huge deal,” he said.
According to the W82TXT web page, in 2009 5,474 people were killed and approximately 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes in which the driver was distracted.
On average, texting causes drivers to look away from the road for 4.6 seconds, and at 55 mph the vehicle will travel the length of a football field while the driver isn’t looking at the road, the website said.
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Harms said bands are available at all New Mexico Taco Bells and Rio Grande Credit Union locations throughout the summer.
Albuquerque’s Clear Channel radio stations, including Big I 107.9, 100.3 The Peak, 94 Rock, Classic Country 104.7 and 104.1 The Edge, are also distributing the bands.
“We’re just telling people to knock it off and wait to text,” Harms said.
