ATLANTA --- If your common sense doesn't tell you to pull off the road to send text messages, a group of businesses, civic groups and state agencies hope a publicity campaign will.

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The group announced Tuesday the launch of a statewide campaign called Exit 2 Text It, via school assemblies, radio, television, online and through contact with 1 million grocery shoppers.

The group also called on local governments to enact rules to prohibit their employees from texting while driving for work.

"Texting has become a safety epidemic," said Len Pagano, the president of the Marietta-based Safe America Foundation, which is directing the campaign.

Co-sponsors include Publix, Pepsi, the Georgia Parent Teacher Association, the 100 Black Men of Georgia, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety and others.

Several bills are pending in the General Assembly to outlaw texting while behind the wheel. The group said Tuesday that it would be happy if any of the bills passed but that it isn't waiting.

"We can't wait for legislation to take some action," Pagano said.

Safe America has persuaded radio stations in Newnan, Rome, Augusta and other cities to broadcast 30-second warnings to teen motorists, and it is producing television spots that will air first in Atlanta before being offered to stations across the state. During prom season, it will seek to persuade at least 10,000 teens to take a road-safety course.

Safe America offers a 36-hour course each summer at 10 locations around Atlanta and is looking for locations in Athens, Augusta and Savannah. Publix and Pepsi are offering discounts of $100 off the $600 price of the course, which includes a mock arrest and trial, a staged crash rescue and tips on car handling. However, the course only supplements the classes already required for getting a license.

Texting is responsible for 11 teenage deaths every day in the United States, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Trying to read or type a message on a cell phone makes drivers 23 times more likely to crash, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute said.

"In real life, we adults are immigrants to texting. However, our kids today, they are natives. They know how to text from almost Day One," said Bob Dallas, the director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. "... We know that when you're learning how to drive, all of your attention has to be focused in on driving."

Dallas made a pitch for legislation that would outlaw texting for teen drivers. The measure hasn't reached the floor yet, and similar bills are under consideration in both the House and Senate.

Each of the bills has met opposition from a few legislators and some individuals who say they are unenforceable and intrusive.

Rob Miller has lobbied against the bills as an individual who seeks to protect personal liberty. Interviewed by cell phone as he drove, he said he doesn't condone texting while behind the wheel or do it himself and he applauds the Exit 2 Text It campaign.

"None of this is the nanny state coming in to rescue us from ourselves. I think they are all very good," he said.