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From BleckleyProgress.com Community News
Though students at Bleckley County Middle School can't drive, they're in cars with drivers. In a few years, they'll be on the roads. So while a lot of the Distracted Driving Summit has been focused on the high school this week, there are lessons middle school students can learn as well.
Friday afternoon, students and faculty gathered in the cafeteria to hear one of those lessons from Jacy Good and Steve Johnson. The couple, who live in New York, travel to different schools advocating cell phone free driving and making smart decisions on the road. They'd spoken at BCHS that morning.
Via a power point presentation, students saw the first hand story of how the couple met, what happenened to get them to where they are, and where they are now. Jacy and Steve were college sweethearts, having met at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Jacy was riding home with her parents after graduating when a tractor trailer swerving to miss a car that had ran a red light while turning left(the driver was talking on the phone) hit their car head on. Her parents were killed. Jacy survived but had to endure nearly nine hours of surgery. Though comatose and given just a ten percent chance to live, she recovered There were gasps as some of the photos displaying Jacy while in the hospital were displayed. However, students also saw her recovery and what happened next. Jacy began a lobbying campaign for a cellphone ban in Pennsylvania after her recovery. Her story attracted media attention including Oprah Winfrey.
In speaking about her recovery, she said she still has lingering issues including an inability to move the fingers of her left hand. But Jacy was also glad to be alive and noted how she made the ponytail she was wearing, and she could eat delicious pizza they had for lunch. Slides helped drive home many of their points. One demonstrated the activity of a normal brain while driving compared to one while driving and also engaged in conversation. Another showed how a person on the phone viewed the road as opposed to one paying attention.
The final slide which encouraged taking the pledge not to engage in distracted driving as well as social media contacts for Jacy, also had a collage of people killed by distracted drivers.
Before taking questions from students, the couple encouraged students to make smart decisions. Tell the driver to slow down, to put their phone on mute. Offer to check the text message. You can learn more about Jacy and Steve by visiting www.hangupanddrive.com © Copyright 2015 by BleckleyProgress.com |
