Jeremy Marrero experienced some heart-stopping moments behind the wheel Monday morning.
Marrrero, a Seymour High School senior, took a turn at the controls of a driving simulator that gives students a realistic highway view of what happens when they text and drive.
As Marrero looked down to text a message on his cell phone, he failed to see that a truck on the simulator had stopped in front of him with brake lights on.
“As soon as I looked down, I knew it was over,” Marrero said.
Most students ended up “crashing” into the vehicle.
“Even though it’s a simulator, it’s still scary,” he said. “It’s teaching me really well that I shouldn’t text and drive.”
Marrero was one of many students who visited “Distractology 101,” a mobile classroom at the high school grounds that houses the simulators.
He said he’s had a few friends in accidents involving texting.
Rich Kearns, the school system’s director of security, told juniors and seniors at a Monday morning assembly that his son has lost 14 friends to motor vehicle accidents since graduating from high school.
“It really hits me hard,” an emotional Kearns told the students who gathered at the assembly to experience AT&T’s “It Can Wait,” a program focusing on texting and driving.
Kearns is coordinating the school’s weeklong program focusing on the responsibilities of safe driving.
The Valley Community Foundation is a sponsor of the program, and the Arbella Insurance Group Charitable Foundation and Bearingstar Insurance Company funded the simulators.
“There is no text message or email that’s more important than your life,” Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller told students during Monday’s assembly.
As a licensed funeral director, Miller said he’s “been places I don’t want to be. None of you want to see that.”
Students were urged to follow the example of several speakers and take a pledge not to text while driving. They signed their names to a large poster at the front of the auditorium.
“I’m going to ask every single one of you to sign this pledge,” Miller said.
“You’re part of our community,” State Rep. Theresa Conroy told the students. “We want you to stay here.”
A car travels the length of a football field during the time a driver’s eyes are off the road while texting, she said. That’s enough to spell disaster if there’s a stopped vehicle in front of the car.
As a nurse, Conroy said she’s seen the tragic results of people who have suffered head injuries from accidents caused by distracted driving.
She asked the students to be the “voice” for their family members who still may be texting while driving.
The message “Don’t text and drive” are just words until “it impacts you personally,” said John Haymond, a lawyer who represents motor vehicle accident victims.
The incidence of texting and driving has increased dramatically, Haymond told the students, and he reviewed the many consequences of causing a serious accident.
Teenage motorists could lose their drivers’ licenses, serve jail time, and incur fines that could bankrupt their families.
He urged the students to use a hands-free phone while driving, and Kelly Bettuchi, director of external affairs for AT&T, asked them to turn off their phones while driving and put them in the back seat of their cars.
“No text message is worth endangering your life or anyone else on the road,” Bettuchi said, saying not texting while driving should become as automatic as fastening a seat belt.
She presented some sobering statistics.
There has been a ten-fold increase in texting over the past three years, she said, and those who text while driving are 23 times more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle accident.
During the assembly, students watched “The Last Text,” a film of testimonials by teenagers who had been involved in “texting” accidents and the families of teenagers killed in such accidents.
SHS student Raihan Ahmed expressed his feelings as he waited to “drive” the simulator.
“I think it’s crazy that people are still texting and driving,” he said.
