Someone reading this sentence right now will most likely use a smartphone while driving. Perhaps this person already has — and more than once.

Distracted driving, or “the practice of driving a motor vehicle while engaged in another activity,” is frighteningly common. Some might even call it a “pervasive problem.”

That’s according to AT&T, which described it that way after Telecom did a survey and found that seven in 10 people engage in smartphone activities while driving. What’s worse is that nearly four in 10 smartphone users tap into social media while driving, and almost three in 10 surf the web. Some people even — get thisvideo chat while driving!

Before you go blaming young people for all this, though, consider that  2,067 people of ages 16-65 said in a poll that they drive distracted at least once a day.

“Distracted driving is more than a problem. It’s an epidemic,” said Joey L. Eddins, an EMT instructor and skills evaluator in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in an interview with LifeZette.

AAA just came out with figures that 25 to 50 percent of all accidents are related to distracted driving, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says 660,000 people will be on their cellphones behind the wheel during daylight hours,” he added.

To put that into perspective — that would be equivalent to the entire population of Nashville, Tennessee.

Eddins knows a thing or two about distracted driving, and not just because she’s an EMT with years of experience in responding to motor vehicle crashes. While she was in a car with her daughter headed home from the hospital on July 25, 2016, another driver hit Eddins’ vehicle.

“He turned left and was in our lane, his headlights were blinding me, and in spite of all my emergency vehicle driver’s training, I couldn’t do anything to avoid what was about to happen,” she recalled. “It happened faster than I could blink my eyes, and I honestly thought my daughter and I were going to die in that moment.”

“I looked up at the faces of the ambulance crew, and then I saw the other driver holding his hair and saying ‘I’m sorry’ over and over.”

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Eddins’ daughter, Cheyenne Eddins, remembers screaming and hearing her mother scream, too.

“The dashboard had moved forward, crushing my legs, and the floorboard had risen, trapping my mom’s legs,” the daughter said. “Smoke was coming from the car, and people were running over to us from what seemed out of nowhere.”

Joey Eddins was the only one seriously injured.

“I looked up at the faces of the ambulance crew, and then I saw the other driver holding his hair and saying ‘I’m sorry’ over and over,” she remembered.

The next morning, Eddins learned the other driver was texting while he was behind the wheel.

“While in the hospital awaiting what would be the first of five surgeries, I decided I needed to do more than talk about what happened to me,” she told LifeZette. “It was in the following months, trying to survive as a victim, dealing with insurance companies, police, financial troubles from not being able to work, physical therapy, lawyers, knowing that my ability to walk was forever changed for the worse and the person who hit me only received a $50 fine — that I was adamant I was going to start a charity to help other victims so they never had to feel as helpless as I did on top of all the other emotions these victims go through.”

Related: Texting and Driving Puts Us Over the Line

Today, Eddins is founder and president of Hands Free America Inc., a nonprofit charity in Pennsylvania that assists the victims of distracted drivers.

Eddins plans on expanding nationally: “I don’t want any other victim to feel alone and helpless.”

She believes the problems involving distracted driving are worse than what AT&T found. “We have one in three teens who admit to texting while driving, if you look at the Pew Research study. Adults have bosses that demand responses to emails and texts within minutes, regardless of what their employees are doing.”

So what should be done? “To combat the epidemic of distracted driving takes a multi-pronged approach,” said Eddins. “Education, awareness campaigns, and changes in laws are all great starts.”

Eddins and Hands Free America Inc. call it the three As: awareness campaigns, advocacy for better laws, and assistance to the victims of distracted drivers.

“Few states have hands-free laws, which means not using a cellphone behind the wheel at all, and more states need to get on board with that,” she said. “Statistics show that hands-free laws work and decrease the incidents of death and injury.”

Increasing the penalties for distracted driving will result in more people leaving their phone or some other device alone while driving, she said.

Related: That Text Can Wait! Life Is More Important

“We have states such as Pennsylvania that give out $50 fines. There is no stigma attached to it, and the laws are written in [such] a way that it’s very hard for police to implement,” she warned. “Distracted driving and drunk driving are both equally deadly and equally preventable, and there are studies that show driving while looking at or responding to a text message gives the driver the same amount of control over a vehicle as someone who downed four beers and jumped behind the wheel and drove.”

Joey Eddins’ daughter, Cheyenne, now serves as vice president of Hands Free America Inc. In addition to assisting victims of distracted drivers, the mother-daughter duo organizes meet-and-greet events with first responders. While there, participants discuss distracted driving and learn about various job opportunities. They’re also encouraged to sign a pledge to not drive distracted.

Chris Woodward is a reporter for American Family News and OneNewsNow.com. He lives and works in Tupelo, Mississippi.