QUINCY, ILL. -- In 2009, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration said 54 hundred people were killed in accidents that were related to distracted driving.
In fact, a Keokuk minister is making it a personal mission to alert teenagers about the dangers of being a distracted driver.
The Reverend Jim Amick says it bothers him when he's driving down the street and sees someone either texting while they're driving or even talking on a cell phone while behind the wheel of their car.
He says it takes just a split second of taking your eyes off the road to possibly cause a traffic crash.
"I think as a grandfather, and as a father and a minister and a community leader, sometimes we just have to express to, especially young people, there - although we see older people doing it as well. Express to them that they need to drive more safely there and take into consideration that someone's life is at stake if they get distracted," said Amick.
Reverend Amick has even went as far as to put up signs at the Keokuk Salvation Army and even a bumper sticker on the van he drives.
According to the National Highway Safety Administration the greatest proportion of distracted drivers was the under 20 age group. In fact, 16% of those drivers under the age of 20 that were involved in a fatal crash were reported to have been distracted while driving.
Jennifer Cifaldi is an assistant states attorney in Adams County Illinois. She handles the traffic court cases.
"It seems to be the young kids who are more into texting. Then perhaps the older population. And that mentality, that younger youth mentality is invincibility. It's not going to happen to me. So until it does happen to them, they just, they think it's not going too," said Cifaldi.
So as an adult or parent, it's your job to make sure to young people in your life get the message about the danger of distracted driving and they need to make sure They Just Let It Ring.
For more information on texting and driving or even distracted driving, you can visit your states D-O-T website, you can visit our website www.connecttristates.com or you can go to the federal governments website on distracted driving - www.distraction.gov.
Click here to take the pledge to Just Let It Ring ... you could save lives and possibly win a new Kia Soul!
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