Community Corner

Wyandotte Man Joins Fight Against Texting While Driving

As an insurance salesman at E.W. Smith in Wyandotte, Matthew Perry's profession gives him an inside look at the dangers of texting while driving.

In conjunction with a national campaign created by Auto-Owners Insurance, Perry, 32, of Wyandotte, entered the fight against texting while driving by speaking to young people attending driver education at J&J Driving Academy in Southgate.

During his time away from work, Perry shows driver education students a short educational film and passes out thumb bands to remind drivers to think before texting while driving.

"We're trying to prevent accidents before they happen," Perry said. 

Thumb bands were provided by the W82TXT campaign through Auto-Owners Insurance. The campaign seeks to reduce the number of texting related crashes, according to an Auto-Owners Insurance release.

In the moments before an accident, drivers usually spend five seconds looking at their phone, which is enough time to cover more than the length of a football field going normal highway speeds, according to the release.

“We feel this is part of our corporate responsibility,” Katie Noirot, Auto-Owners Insurance senior vice president, marketing and sales, said in the release. “Our independent agents also take on that responsibility and want to help their communities whenever possible. Hopefully the next time someone goes to text, and looks down and sees their thumb band, they will think twice.”    

Perry plans to continue the fight by visiting more driver education classes throughout the summer.

"This helps let people know we're trying to do something to keep the community safe," Perry said.


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