One of the first campaigns this semester by University of Tampa’s Student Government is focused on safety. President Patrick Creedon worked in conjunction with the wireless phone company AT&T to promote their It Can Wait awareness movement to UT students. It Can Wait is a program asking students to sign a pledge vowing not to text while operating their vehicles.
“We can raise awareness about the dangers of texting and driving and ask students to refrain from putting their lives and the lives of pedestrians in danger,” said Creedon, a senior business and marketing major. “It is such an incredible cause that I am beyond passionate about.”
Student government has worked directly with AT&T to bring the pledge to the university. Creedon said that the company has provided signage and giveaways in order to help promote the cause. On Sept. 24, student government set up a table in Vaughn Center asking students to sign the pledge. After only one day of promoting the campaign, 843 students signed the promise not to text and drive.
“If students are going to take the responsibility to have a car and be driving on campus, they need to be aware of the laws and consequences that could occur when breaking these laws,” said Rachel Nichols, a junior education major. “Making students more aware of the risks associated with using a cell phone while driving will make them think twice before pulling it out while on the road.”
Florida became the latest state to pass a specific law against texting and driving. Over the summer, Governor Rick Scott passed a law restricting texting on mobile phones while driving, which took effect this past Tuesday, Oct. 1. This has been the first legislature in the state of Florida to limit any sort of cell phone usage. The only other states in America to currently have no laws against it are South Carolina, Montana and South Dakota.
The law, called SB 0052, does not forbid using a cell phone for navigation or any other uses. Specifically, the bill targets drivers who manually type on to their phone that causes the distraction from the road. One exception includes using a speech-to-text dictation in order to send a text message. Some students are concerned that since the bill does not ban all cellphone use, it may be hard for officers to enforce the policy.
“What about being on Facebook and updating your status?” Nichols said. “Technically, it is not breaking the law, but I know that I am much more distracted looking on my news feed than I would be just to send a single text message. Although I think this is a start to the law, I believe it needs to expand and say using your cell phone in any way at all while driving is against the law.”
In a partnership with Campus Security, Student Government will be asking every student to voluntarily sign the pledge as they pick up their parking pass in coming semesters. The issue is a safety concern for many college-age drivers. Every moment nearly 660,000 drivers are using their cellphones while driving in America, according to Distraction.gov, a government website dedicated to information about distracted driving. Drivers distracted by their cell phones caused 21 percent of fatal crashes involving teens from ages 15 to 19.
“Realistically, it will not directly end texting and driving or even cause a dramatic reduction in those that do, but we are hoping students will at least think twice before picking up their phone while they’re driving,” Creedon said. “Drawing awareness to the cause, sharing statistics and encouraging students to take the pledge is a great start to developing safer drivers.”