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Don't txt and drive!
Texting while driving
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined US and Russian Ambassadors to the UN on Wednesday to launch a global effort to end distracted driving. Jocelyne Sambira has more.
Fade in PSA with US Secretary of Transportation, Ray Lahood.
LAHOOD: You know, if you are looking down at a blackberry texting for 4 seconds, your car goes the length of a football field!
(SFX: People talking on their cells while driving then sound of a crash)
SMITH: My mom, Linda Doyle, from Oklahoma, was leaving her neighbourhood driving through the intersection when a 20 year old driver, ran a red light, T-boning her car at 45 to 50 miles per hour, killing her on impact.
NARR: That was Jennifer Smith, President and founder of Focus Driven, a leading voice in the campaign for Cell free driving. She was joined by US Permanent Resident to the United Nations, Ambassador Susan Rice to launch a global call to end distracted driving.
RICE: Texting while driving isn't a harmless habit. It's a killer. The suffering it causes is direct and immediate. Lives lost for no reason, futures shattered in an instant. But its toll is truly global.
NARR: The mobile phone craze and its impact is everywhere: people walking on the streets, in the subways, texting on their phones or heads slightly tilted, juggling groceries and trying to have a conversation. And yes, some are behind the wheel. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
BAN: Every year more than 1.2 million people die on the roads around the world and as many as 50 million people are injured. Over 90% of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries.
NARR: If you add to that 6,000 deaths and half a million injured in the United States alone, Ray Lahood US Secretary of Transportation deems it a deadly epidemic.
Lahood: It is a global crisis - maybe the least recognized public health and safety crisis of the 21st Century.
NARR: Drivers who use cell phones are four times likely to be involved in a crash and all it takes is a moment of inattention explains Ambassador Susan Rice.
RICE: Studies by researchers at the University of Utah show that using a cell phone while driving delays a driver's reactions as much as having alcohol in your blood up to the legal limit of 0.8 per cent.
NARR: As for distracted driving, Mr. Ban promises the UN will by lead by example.
BAN: Texting while driving kills. No SMS is worth an SOS. That is why I am issuing an administrative instruction aimed at promoting road safety, saving lives and prohibiting all drivers of UN vehicles from texting while driving.
NARR: And Susan Rice had these parting words.
RICE: For the sake of my loved ones and all of yours, let's make distracted driving a thing of the past.
NARR: Ambassador Susan Rice on ending distracted driving.
Producer: Jocelyne Sambira
Duration: 3'13"
