Arkansas Trucking Association

U Drive. U Text. U Pay. Campaign

In early April, Arkansas law enforcement officers joined in a 6-day national initiative to crack down on violators who text while driving.

The U Drive. U Text. U Pay. campaign is a twofold initiative that combines additional law enforcement patrols devoted to watching for drivers who are texting along with a national advertising and media outreach plan designed to inform the public about the stepped-up patrols and the driver’s responsibility to obey the law.

“Arkansas motorists need to know that we are serious about stop- ping the deadly behavior of texting while driving,” said Colonel Stan Witt, Director of the Arkansas State Police and the Governor’s Highway Safety Representative. “The practice has become far too common and strict enforcement of texting laws is one way to break what has turned into a bad habit.”

According to statistics based on motor vehicle crashes that occurred during 2012, there were 3,328 people killed and 421,000 injured nationwide as the result of distracted driving. The University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute reports that 25 per- cent of teenage drivers respond to a text message once or more every time they drive, and 20 percent of teens and 10 percent of parents admit that they have been part of extended multi-message text conversations while driving.

The U Drive. U Text. U Pay. campaign is a national initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation to address incidents of distracted driving.