Students at Northport High School learned about the dangers of distracted driving from Suffolk County Legislator William Spencer and service provider AT&T on Monday.

The teens who attended the seminar were all seniors, the only students at Northport High School who are allowed to drive in each day. After watching a short documentary film, the students talked about why it’s so important to put your phone on do not disturb while you’re behind the wheel.

"The anxiety of getting a notification like, ‘Oh is it an emergency?’ And if not, it's like is my mom calling me? Is my dad calling me? It's always that anxiousness that you have, and I feel like it's very important, you have to stay away from it,’” says student Rafan Paul.

The students also learned that distracted driving is not just texting and driving. Mike Nazar says he learned passengers can also be a distraction while driving.

He says, “I think a large majority of it is people in your car with you. They can be distracting you, they’re telling you to play music. Or they tell you where we have to go…anything a lot of times that could result in being distracted and making actions that should've never happened in the first place."

Each student signed It Can Wait Pledge, which says "Eyes on the road, not on your phone." 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says there were over 3,000 fatalities caused by distracted driving in 2017.