Hot Dog-Eating Champ Joins Campaign Against Texting While Driving

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) - The city of San Jose is urging residents to commit to safe driving practices by putting down their cellphones and other electronic devices while on the road.

The national "It Can Wait" campaign, spearheaded by communications company AT&T, made a stop in San Jose Wednesday morning for an event that was attended by hot dog-eating champion Joey Chestnut. The campaign is asking Bay Area residents, city employees and AT&T employees to make a lifelong commitment never to send a message while behind the wheel. The event began at 11 a.m. outside San Jose City Hall.

Chestnut, who has ties to the San Jose area, is part of a celebrity effort to encourage motorists to put down their phones and focus on driving. A virtual simulator was set up in the City Hall rotunda to show the real-life dangers of texting while driving. The city of San Jose teamed up with AT&T's campaign earlier this summer. Given its location in the technology hotbed of Silicon Valley, the city was selected as a key spot for targeting unsafe driving practices.

An online texting-while-driving simulator is in the works that would give users at home a sense of the riskiness of that behavior, according to AT&T. More information about the campaign is available at itcanwait.com.

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