Oprah calls it "America's new deadly" obsession, texting, emailing and calling while driving. On Oprah's show today, she shows the great tragedies that happen due to distracted driving. Oprah urges her viewers to take a pledge. So far over 20,000 people have taken the No Phone Zone pledge:
"I pledge to make my car a No Phone Zone. Beginning right now, I will do my part to help put an end to distracted driving by not texting or using my phone while I am driving. I will ask other drivers I know to do the same. I pledge to make a difference."
A recent survey found that 71 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 49 admit they text or talk on the phone while they drive.
When a train conductor wasn't paying attention while receiving 40 text messages. The train collided head-on with a freight train, injuring 135 people, killing the conductor and 24 other people.
A truck driver while texting hit a school bus carrying 21 students while. Twenty students escaped, but 13-year-old Margay Schee was killed.
Nearly 500,000 people are injured and 6,000 are killed each year because drivers are talking, texting and e-mailing behind the wheel.
"It is my prayer that this show, this day will be a seminal day in your life," Oprah says. "Let it be the end, the end of you using a cell phone or sending a text message when you are behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. And until we as a nation decide we're going to change that, those numbers are only going to go up."