Carriers Distributing Powerful Texting While Driving Documentary
Director Werner Herzog's film "From One Second To the Next" tells how four texting while driving accidents changed, in the blink of an eye, the lives of everyone involved. The wireless carriers will distribute it to more than 40,000 high schools nationwide.
A quartet of major wireless carriers are distributing a new, 35-minute documentary film by famed director Werner Herzog that tells how four texting while driving accidents changed, in the blink of an eye, the lives of everyone involved. "From One Second To the Next" has been viewed more than 1.4 million times in only five days on AT&T's YouTube channel alone.
Herzog's film will be distributed free to more than 40,000 high schools nationwide, safety organizations, and government agencies by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, Inc., and Verizon as part of the It Can Wait® campaign that is trying to raise awareness about the dangers of texting while driving. The campaign asks members of the public to take a pledge not to text while driving, and more than 2 million people have done so.
Two men who caused fatal accidents while texting speak in the film about their remorse for the pain and damage their actions caused. Relatives of severely injured people struck in these accidents discuss the lasting injuries – paralysis, brain injuries – their loved ones have experienced because a driver sent or read a meaningless text while behind the wheel.
One driver refused to participate on advice of her attorney, according to the film, which reports that, while the driver's insurance carrier paid $50,000 to the victim in her accident, the victim's hospital bills exceeded $1 million.
"When you get a message while driving, it's hard not to pick up your phone," Herzog says in a news release posted at the campaign's website. "With this film, we want to help make people more aware of the potential consequences of that action."