The phone you were looking at instead of the road flies from your hand as the driver’s side is t-boned by an oncoming car.

The glass shatters and small shards fly around your face, slowing down in the final seconds of your virtual life. Had you not been looking at your phone you would have known the light turned red and you were driving straight into traffic.

This is how AT&T’s newest virtual reality simulator, as a part of their “It Can Wait” campaign, ends, and last Friday Attorney General Peter Kilmartin tried it for himself.

Throughout the simulation a smartphone appears in your line of vision and participants are encouraged to spot the bicyclists, the pedestrians and other cars, which are often shadowed by the bright digital screen of the phone.

Kilmartin hosted a press conference outside of the Cranston Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to remind people not to text and drive, with AT&T New England’s president Patricia Jacobs, Rhode Island State Police Lt. Col. Todd E. Catlow and Deputy Superintendent and Chief of Field Operations Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles Administrator Walter Craddock.

As a long-time advocate for safe driving, Kilmartin often visits high schools to remind students not to use their phones while behind the wheel, and 20,000 students have taken the pledge not to text and drive in the last year. However, it is said that the 100 days of summer are most dangerous for young drivers.

He said that distracted driving is the leading cause of death to youth behind the wheel even before drinking and driving. Kilmartin noted that it’s no longer just texting. Drivers are sending emails, surfing the Internet and “snapping selfies.”

Jacobs said, “Smartphones are getting smarter. There is more you can do with a phone and it’s all very exciting unless you’re behind the wheel.”

Although he noted distracted driving is nothing new, Craddock believes that with the introduction of smartphones it has become an epidemic on our roadways.

According to AT&T’s latest research, seven out of 10 people engage in phone activity while driving.

Although texting and emailing is still the majority of the use, many admitted to using social media such as Facebook and Twitter and even videochatting while driving.

“That puts everyone at risk, and it needs to stop,” Craddock said.

Catlow explained that on average looking at a cellphone takes 4.6 seconds, and if you’re traveling at 55 miles per hour, “That’s driving blind for the length of a football field.”

He said using your phone while driving is a visual, manual and cognitive distraction in that “your eyes are off the road, your hands are off the wheel and your mind is off driving,” and that puts innocent people at risk.

According to the National Highway Safety Administration, more than 3,000 people were killed in crashes caused by distracted driving and 424,000 injured.

“These are not insignificant numbers,” Kilmartin said.

For Rhode Island, driving fatalities are on the decline, having only 52 in 2014 compared to 65 in 2013.

He said, however, that is 52 too many.

“We won’t be happy until its at 0 and stays at 0,” he said.

AT&T’s virtual reality simulator, which is making a tour of 100 cities in 100 days for the “It Can Wait” public awareness campaign, was available outside of the DMV throughout the day for young drivers. Youth just receiving their permits or licenses were encouraged to try the simulator to experience first hand, in a safe environment, the dangers of distracted driving.

“We hope young people will try their luck on our simulator, not on the road,” Jacobs said. “No text is more important than your safety or your life.”

Kilmartin noted that distracted driving is not solely a problem among the youth, but rather is more pervasive and “spans across all demographics and age groups.”

He said when driving we have to realize distractions put more than yourself at risk, but everyone around you as well.

“We need to have conversations among family and friends point out that their lives matter to us,” Kilmartin said. “We need to talk about the reality of the dangers we face when texting and driving.”