Event at East High Kicks Off National Teen Driver Safety Week
East High students sign a pledge to not text and drive during an event to kick off National Teen Safe Driver Week.
The numbers are attention-getting:
- Texting drivers are 23 times more likely to have an accident.
- Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15-20 year-olds.
- Sending/receiving a text takes an average of 4.6 seconds. At 55 mph that’s like driving the length of a football field literally blind.
But the numbers alone are like listening to debating candidates talking about revenue estimates in the trillions or Carl Sagan wax astronomic about “billions and billions” of stars. By themselves the stats lack context. That’s where real, true, happens-every-day-and-it-could-happen-to-you, life and death stories come in.
In 2007 Congress established National Teen Driver Safety Week. This year it’s October 14-20 and this morning East High School got a head start on it with a powerful demonstration of the extreme dangers associated with text driving. That’s text driving as in drunk driving as in there are studies suggesting that the former is even riskier than the latter. Don’t believe it? Then consider that drunk drivers may have impaired vision but texting drivers essentially have their eyes closed.
The two-pronged program that was set up in the East gym was a joint effort of AT&T, the Iowa Department of Public Safety and PEER Awareness, a company dedicated to educating youth on a wide range of safety and wellness issues.
Following opening remarks from Beth Canuteson, a regional Vice-President of External Affairs for AT&T, the students were shown The Last Text, a short documentary film that chronicles several text driving tragedies involving teen drivers. Each of the testimonials in the film was more powerful than any statistic.
- A state trooper described coming upon the scene of a mangled car whose driver was killed upon impact with a highway abutment. In the back seat were her graduation cap and gown.
- The close friend of another road fatality tearfully recounted how the text she sent her friend was listed in the accident report as the cause of death.
- A college freshman who hit and killed a young bicyclist remembered the text he was sending when it happened: LOL.
- The mother who lost her daughter to a text driving collision told how the girl’s phone kept getting the same message over and over while she lay dying in the hospital emergency room: Where U at?
- A disfigured, disabled young man who crashed mid-text was barely understandable as he told the camera, “I used to be normal…”
View the “Last Text Message” documentary:
At first many in the audience were texting away. But by the time the film ended it had almost unanimous and undivided attention. Maybe somebody who was watching will grow old as a result. Or maybe somebody who wasn’t even there will.
Following the film students took turns in a text driving simulator using their own phones and a pair of virtual reality goggles. Since the dogs and pedestrians they mowed down were avatars they could afford the luxury of nervous, whistling-past-the-graveyard laughter. Many then signed the “It Can Wait” pledge of no texting while driving.
Canuteson explained that AT&T has an app available for cell phones that equips them to automatically send the message “I’m driving right now (i.e., TTYL)” in response to incoming texts.
“We feel a responsibility to educate about the dangers of text driving since we are in the business of selling these devices,” she said, adding that she hopes text driving will become as stigmatized as drunk driving. It’s already illegal in Iowa and 38 other states.
Looks can kill, in an instant; IRL*.
* IRL is “in real life” in text speak.
