Breana Coleman texted her mother Friday morning. She likes staying in touch with her family and friends and, like many teens her age – and adults, as well – her phone and texting has become part of her life.

What the Toll Gate senior and class treasurer didn’t do is text her mother while driving. She said she keeps her phone in the console beside the driver’s seat and, if she gets a text, she lets it wait until she stops the car before reading it.

Coleman was one of the first to sign the “It Can Wait” pledge as Attorney General Peter Kilmartin kicked off the third annual campaign to educated Rhode Islanders about the dangers of distracted driving.

Following an emotional video that left the audience of more than 500 students in silence, Kilmartin, standing on the stage of the Robert J. Shapiro Auditorium said, “We are not here to scare you.”

Yet the stories told by those whose lives had been changed by accidents caused by writing or reading text messages were frightening. One driver was living with the knowledge that he killed a cyclist in the seconds he had taken to read a message; another is a paraplegic, the result of an accident when his car left the road; and another was a mother who lost her daughter when her friend texted her.

Kilmartin has seen the video more than two dozen times.

“Every time, it still hits me,” he said softly.

There was no need for him to speak louder. His audience knew what he was talking about.

“They thought it couldn’t happen to me,” he said. “I’m not going to die. I’m not going to kill someone.”

Yet annually, about 65 people die on Rhode Island roads, with most of those deaths attributable to making poor decisions and taking attention off driving, according to Mayor Scott Avedisian, who shared the stage with Principal Stephen Chrabaszcz, Col. Stephen McCartney, AT&T regional director Joseph Shannon, Major James Manni of the state police and Rhode Island Department of Transportation Chief Civil Engineer Francisco Lovera.

“We are here to heighten awareness, why it is so unsafe,” said Avedisian. “No text is more important than your life.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2012, a total of 3,328 died and another 421,000 were injured in crashes with distracted drivers. That report finds that texting while driving surpassed drinking as a leading cause of death for teenagers behind the wheel, with an estimated 3,000 teens killed due to texting; an estimated 2,800 die from drunk driving.

Kilmartin urged students to consider the self-inflicted punishment and physical injury they could sustain.

“You have the power of choice,” he said. He said he is aware of all that students are asked to do and are involved in. “What we are asking you to do is to make the right choice.”

Citing in his own case, where young family members got him in the habit of buckling his seat belt, he called on the students to lead by example.

“Tell someone you love to put the cell phone away,” he said.

Kilmartin said about 15,000 students across the state have taken the pledge since the campaign was initiated. Of the total, about 2,000 are Warwick students.

That was one reason, and the fact Toll Gate and Chrabaszcz have been such advocates of the program, that the campaign kickoff was held at the school. Signup boards were provided for the students to take the pledge but, as the assembly was coming to a close and students had classes, only a few, like Coleman, had the opportunity to sign their names.

But have no fear. Chrabaszcz said the boards will be at the school for some time. And, guess what – taking the pledge is as easy as using a smart phone and going online to AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign at www.att.com/itcanwait.