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Distracted driving put to the test
Posted: 08.08.2012 at 5:45 PM
Updated: 08.09.2012 at 11:40 AM
Abbie Burke

Abbie Burke is a general assignment reporter for FOX21 News.

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Watch the video to see FOX21's Abbie Burke run through the course

FOX21's Abbie Burke accepts the Safe Driving Challenge Tuesday and finds that distracted driving is harder than she thinks.  / FOX21: Mike Duran
Photo

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Texting and driving is a growing problem among drivers across the nation, but Allstate officials says any distracted driving is bad, and they're trying to prove it with their distracted driving course.

Allstate hosted a Safe Driving Challenge course in Colorado Springs Tuesday and challenged teens and adults to test their skills.

"We're challenging families to do their part to make our streets safer," Jeff Westover, an Allstate driving instructor, said.

Drivers ran through the course four times - first with no distractions, then while talking on the phone, then while texting and driving, and finally with distractions coming from inside the car.

"It was okay the first few times until I did it with the texting and the talking and someone playing the radio too loud and screaming at me," Monica Spachek, a teen driver, said.

"Until they come on a course like this people think that they're doing okay," Westover said. "They're doing near-collision avoidance type of things and they want to blame it on other people," he said.

Westover said Allstate is trying to spread the word that distracted driving is dangerous driving.

"We'd like to think we can multitask as human beings, but it really is difficult for us to do that, especially with driving and it's such a serious thing," Westover said.

Drivers said they were shocked at how badly they performed in the course.

"A lot of their reaction is just 'wow I did not realize it was this hard, I didn't realize I was that bad,' because now we're keeping score and keeping time and you don't do that when you're on your normal drive. They don't realize how dangerous their driving is because they're distracted," Westover said.

Aware that they can't run everyone through the course Westover said they are hoping that teens like Spachek who go through it will spread the word to their friends.

"We tell them go back and tell your friends not to text and drive, to put that phone down. Be that positive example," Westover said.

Spachek said she doesn't text and drive and Tuesday's course helped to reaffirm that decision.

"Don't text and drive. Don't even mess with any cell phones or anything, it's not worth it," Spachek said.

And Allstate's message isn't just for teens, it's for any driver on the road.

"So many people are involved in collisions and die in our country every year. We need to change something, and that's what we're doing with Allstate, going around the country and trying to change behaviors," Westover said.

After running through the course drivers were encouraged to sign a pledge not to text and drive.

Watch the video above to see FOX21's Abbie Burke run through the course.

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