Business & Tech

100 Pledge Not to Text and Drive at Best Buy Event

Could you play Mario Kart while texting? Best Buy held a fun and informative event with area organizations Saturday, March 31, to educate the public on the dangers of distracted driving.

held its first in-store community event, the , Saturday, March 31, to educate the public about the dangers of distracted driving.

Representatives from PennDOT, Street Smarts, a nonprofit institute for public health through the Public Health Management Corporation, Farmers Insurance, All State Insurance, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the March of Dimes were there along with the cow and the .

Lauren Amway, a health educator with Street Smarts Regional Highway Traffic Safety Project, told Patch there were 428 distracted driving crashes in Delaware County in 2006, compared to 560 in 2010. In 2011 alone, there were 4,587 total crashes in Delaware County and 590 of them involved distracted driving, according to Amway.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

To demonstrate the dangers of distracted driving, attendees were asked to try to play Mario Kart while wearing "beer goggles" then attempt to text while driving their go-kart.

Each customer who signed the pledge was given a $5 coupon good towards any Bluetooth accessory as well as a raffle ticket to win a Ghostbusters DVD or a Phillies wrist watch.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

The Philadelphia Ghostbusters and Chic-Fil-A cow posed for pictures with kids while demonstrations were provided on various Bluetooth models and features.

By the end of the event there were exactly 100 pledges. Organizers originally hoped to get 1,000 pledges but said this number was more realistic for average store traffic on a Saturday.

"Having 100 pledges was really awesome," employee Terrance "T.J" Brida said.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here