Pioneer Electric Cooperative has joined AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign.

The “It Can Wait” campaign aims to eliminate texting while driving.

Through “It Can Wait,” AT&T, its employees and other supporters have called on all drivers to visit www.itcanwait.com to take the no-texting-and-driving pledge, and then share their promise with others via Twitter (#itcanwait) and Facebook. The pledge effort is part of the company’s public awareness campaign aimed directly at stopping the dangerous practice of texting while driving. AT&T in September announced that more than 1 million pledges have been logged through the initiative. Pioneer Electric Cooperative had 100 percent employee participation.

“Pioneer Electric recently implemented a company-wide safety campaign, called ‘Safe Today, Home Tonight.’  AT&T’s program was a perfect fit for us,” said Terry Moseley, executive vice president and general manager of Pioneer Electric Cooperative. “Many of our employees spend the majority of their work day in a service vehicle and due to our requirement for hands free cell phone use while driving company cars, we feel that no texting while driving is the next step for a safer workplace.”

More than 100,000 times each year, an automobile crashes and people are injured or die because the driver was texting while driving, says AT&T Alabama State President Fred McCallum, citing a statistic from the National Safety Council1.

“Our goal through this program is simple – to save lives. We have heard from far too many people whose lives have been forever changed by a texting-while-driving accident, and together, we want to spread the word about how deadly a single text can really be,” McCallum said. “We’d like to see texting and driving become as unacceptable as drinking and driving, and today’s announcement by Pioneer Electric Cooperative is a strong testament to the impact this program is having locally, statewide and nationally. We certainly thank and applaud each and every member who took the pledge and made the simple declaration that no text message is too important to wait even a few minutes.”

AT&T’s “It Can Wait” public awareness campaign is focused on a simple, powerful message: No text is worth dying for. AT&T will spend tens of millions of dollars on the campaign in 2012 and has made it an ongoing commitment in future years.  The effort is comprised of several key initiatives, including:

• Encouraging its 240,000 employees to take the pledge and, in turn, urge all people to commit that they will never text and drive. On an average day, AT&T retail store and call center employees speak to customers more than 500,000 times.
• Working with TV and music celebrities to deliver a strong no texting while driving message via TV ads, concerts, public appearances, Twitter and Facebook.
• Launching an aggressive social media campaign with advertising on Facebook and Twitter to encourage Americans to take the pledge and to share their pledges with their friends via social media.
• Educating the public using TV ads on the dangers of texting while driving that will run during high-profile events and teen-focused programs.
• Working to provide a toolkit of no-texting-while-driving information to every high school in the country.
• Launching an online driving simulator at www.itcanwait.com  in the coming weeks – so that anyone with access to the Internet can experience the dangers of texting while driving.

Pioneer Electric has partnered with AT&T to provide the “It Can Wait” presentation to our area high school students. On Tuesday, the presentation will be given at Greenville High School at 1:30 p.m.