Promoting safety for teen drivers is a common theme in this forum, but students who have experienced the consequences of distracted driving are more persuasive communicators.
"It felt like I was going the speed of light," Bailey Clark recalled. "I remember the sound of crunching glass. It happened so fast, there was nothing you could do about it." Clark, a Eugene High School junior, was describing a rollover accident that resulted after glancing at an incoming text message.
Clark's experience was echoed by fellow Eugene junior Hannah Burks, who said, "Seconds doesn't even describe how fast it happened." Burks was relating a separate rollover crash that also occurred after glancing at a text message.
Another common denominator is both students had dropped off younger siblings prior to the accidents.
The two teens shared their experiences during last week's safe driving assembly, aptly titled "It Only Takes One." At the event, School Resource Officer Josh Stockman distributed safety-related materials to the elementary students and reminded the upperclassmen: "I want you guys making decisions to be safe, to wear your seat belt, to make the right decisions. If not for you, do it for those who are looking up to you. These kids are watching."
Because high school students serve as examples for the younger students, their safety messages are effective.
Clark - whose injuries included a shattered ankle, lacerations and blood clots - said she is aware other students think, "It won't happen to me."
She responds, "I think every person should know what it's like. People need to know that no matter how cool or popular you may be to drink, text or speed, you need to take a step back and look at the situation. You're not affecting just you."
The experiences of these students show:
• Many accidents are preventable.
• Accidents happen quickly.
• Results may include severe injuries or death
• "You're not just affecting you." Even if no passengers are with you, the consequences will be devastating to other people - including family members, teachers and fellow students.
Suffering and surviving a preventable accident is a difficult way to learn a lesson to share. We urge students to learn from the another person's experience, not repeat it.