Gov. Scott Walker announced Tuesday the month of September will be the “Don’t Text and Drive” awareness month, continuing a statewide effort to curb fatalities from accidents caused by texting while driving, which began with a bipartisan bill to set penalties for the practice in 2009.
The awareness month includes sponsorships from Wisconsin State Patrol, as well as AT&T and AAA, and will add coordinated assemblies and speeches in several Wisconsin high schools in an effort to raise awareness.
Current Wisconsin law sets penalties of up to $400 for texting while driving; making it one of 41 states to ban the practice, according to an AT&T press release. The law resulted from a bipartisan state bill authored by state Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, in 2009.
Barca said he created the bill along with other members of the state Legislature after several high-profile fatalities were tied to texting while driving. He described the law as a preventative measure that law enforcement officials believed would gradually reduce the problem. Barca added the awareness month is an extension of the current preventative process, as it brings attention to the dangers of texting while driving.
“It makes a difference over time when you incentivize people, and people become aware that [texting while driving] can be very dangerous,” Barca said. “Hopefully it makes them more inclined to pull over if they want to text, if it is something that important.”
Texting while driving makes it 23 times more likely a crash will occur, according to AT&T Wisconsin. The statement also said teens are the most at-risk group for texting-related accidents, with 75 percent of teen respondents saying texting while driving was a “common practice” among their friends, according to a recent AT&T survey.
The sponsoring companies said they hope to focus on the at-risk demographic through the high school information sessions they have planned throughout the month.
“By partnering with educators, the state patrol and AT&T, we hope to get the message across to even more Wisconsin drivers that texting and driving is a dangerous mix,” AAA Wisconsin Regional President Tom Frymark said in the statement.
