Word to youth: Texting, driving don't mix

AT&T is launching a campaign against texting and driving. The effort uses television, radio, print, the Internet, shopping malls, even the protective "clings" over the front of new cellphones, to target young drivers. AT&T's "Txtng & Drivng ... It Can Wait" campaign features parents of young texting-and-driving victims and the final text messages the young drivers received just before they died. The campaign's theme: "No text is worth dying over." It's difficult to know how successful such a campaign can be, says Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "The great majority of traditional public awareness campaigns on traffic safety have, unfortunately, not been terribly successful," he says. The successful model, he says, is the national Click It or Ticket seat belt campaign, which works because it has a law generally accepted by the public, a visible enforcement component and a big public awareness effort.