AT&T today launched a new campaign aimed at inspiring Americans to put an end to texting while driving. 

The carrier is asking people to sign the online "It Can Wait" pledge on Sept. 19, where signees make a lifelong commitment to never text while driving again. 

The pledge can be signed at www.itcanwait.com. From there, AT&T is asking users to spread the word on Twitter (#itcanwait) and Facebook. 

The pledge effort is part of the company’s public awareness campaign aimed directly at stopping texting while driving. 

According to the National Safety Council, crashes related to texting while driving have risen to 100,000 annually. 

A recent AT&T survey reported that drivers understand the practice of texting while driving is dangerous. While the survey found that 97 percent of teens say they know that texting is dangerous, it also found 75 percent of teens surveyed say that texting while driving is “common” among their friends. 

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said the goal of the campaign is to save lives. 

“I hear from far too many people whose lives have been forever changed by a texting-while-driving accident, and together, we want to spread the word about how deadly a single text can be. Texting and driving should be as unacceptable as drinking and driving," Stephenson said. 

AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign is focused on a single message: No text is worth dying for. AT&T said it plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on the campaign in 2012 and has made it an ongoing commitment in future years.