A joint Proclamation from Mayor Rogero and Mayor Burchett was presented to Alan L. Hill - Regional Director of External Affairs for AT&T on Thursday proclaiming September 19 as "No Text on Board Pledge Day" in the City of Knoxville and Knox County.

"No Text On Board Pledge Day" is one part of AT&T's nationwide "It Can Wait" initiative, a multi-year, multi-faceted effort to spread the word about how deadly a seemingly simple text message can be. AT&T is calling on all drivers to go to www.ItCanWait.com to take the no-texting-and-driving pledge.

Statistical analysis of 2011 motor vehicle crashes in the United States estimated that distracted drivers were the cause of as much as 20% of traffic fatalities and 80% of all traffic collisions.

Car crashes occur within an average of three seconds after a driver gets distracted, and a distracted driver can be more dangerous than a driver with an 0.08% blood alcohol level.

According to the National Traffic Safety Administration, sending or receiving a text message while driving takes the driver's attention from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent, at 55 miles per hour, of driving the length of a football field while blindfolded.

Texting while driving is the number one cause of fatalities among teenagers, with teenage drivers being four times more likely than adult drivers to be involved in a crash related to texting.

Distracted driving behavior is not confined to a single cause, age group, level of education, or driver demographic.

Driver distraction is approaching epidemic proportions, with the annual cost of traffic accidents involving distraction from a cell phone estimated at $43 billion; and Tennessee and Knox County drivers must examine their driving habits and pledge to protect each other on the road through distraction-free driving behavior.