Lieutenant Governor Part of ‘No Text on Board’ Day

Illinois’ Lieutenant Governor has reached out to college students in an effort to end texting while driving.

Sheila Simon visited a number of community colleges Wednesday, including Parkland College in Champaign, asking students to take the ‘It Can Wait’ pledge and commit to pulling over before receiving or sending a text.

"What we need to do right now is get people thinking about it," she said. "Get people think through the logic of, 'can any message that you're getting on your phone be worth getting into an accident that could or kill or yourself, or other people?  And once we think through that, think I think we'll change our behavior.  Once we start changing behaviors now, it's going to lead to just a permanent cultural change." 

Simon said community college students are among those that spend the most time texting, since they drive to and from class. Despite state laws that levy fines for texting and driving, she said they have yet to have an impact. 

Cell phone distractions were the cause of more than 500 crashes in the first half of 2011 in Illinois.