See the danger: Students learn perils of unsafe driving

Kadesha Gibbs is a center on Newton-Conover High School's basketball team. She does not normally miss free throws. However, when she lined up to take a shot on Tuesday, the ball went far right of the hoop and fell below the board.

At a schoolwide assembly, law enforcement and other authorities talked to students about safe driving as part of National Teen Driver Safety Week. Gibbs and Hunter Davis, who's on the men's basketball team, donned a pair of fatal vision goggles that simulates alcohol impairment.

"It was hard," Gibbs said. "I couldn't see straight."

She said her vision was still a little blurry for a few seconds after she took off the goggles while her eyes re-adjusted.

Car wrecks are the No. 1 cause of death for teens, and October is the deadliest month for teen drivers, according to information gathered by a State Farm Insurance study. In 2007, Congress declared the third week in October as National Teen Driver Safety Week to draw attention to the statistic, said Sig Holcomb, an agent with State Farm Insurance in Conover.

Although teens comprise only 7 percent of the licensed drivers in North Carolina, they account for 14 percent of the fatalities, said Master Trooper Randy Sales with the Highway Patrol.

Holcomb started the day at Newton-Conover High with Strapped for Cash. He gave $1 to the first 50 cars with student drivers who had all occupants buckled up.

"It took 60 cars to hand out the $50. If the police were out there, they'd have handed out tickets to those of you that didn't have your seatbelts on," Holcomb told the crowd.

Sylvia Fisher with Catawba County EMS confronted the students with shocking ideas.

"Do you like going to the bathroom by yourself?" she asked. "Because some of the people at the wrecks we go to, the people are paralyzed. They now have to wear diapers. The burns we see, they take your skin and cut it off."

Fisher also warned students that if they make a bad decision while driving, it won't just affect them, it could affect their boyfriend, girlfriend, siblings, or whoever else is in the car.

BJ Mullinax, the newly appointed district judge, graduated from Newton-Conover High. He said while he was in school, two classmates died from car wrecks.

During his sophomore year, a student was leaving the back parking lot headed to the mall. The student went straight through the stoplight, ran off the right side of the road, went to the left, hit a car head-on and died.

During Mullinax's junior year, a student was driving at a high rate of speed and hit a car head-on and died.

"You don't want to be in school the day after something like that happens," Mullinax said. "The best years are ahead of you, and you want to see those days. It may be as simple as buckling your seat belt or driving at a safe speed."

District Attorney Jay Gaither said being in a hurry is no excuse.

"I'm always in a hurry. I was in a hurry to get here today," he said. "But going a little bit faster would only get me here a minute earlier. That's not worth it."

Gaither, too, lost classmates to car accidents in high school.

Sales spoke to the students about the three types of distractions all drivers are susceptible to: Vision, when their eyes aren't on the road; cognitive, when their mind is not on driving; and mechanical, when their hands aren't on the wheel.

"If you get a phone call or a text in the car, let your friend get it," Sales said. "As of Dec. 1, it will be illegal for all drivers to text and drive."

Students also were discouraged from drinking. Sgt. Dan Harris with the Newton Police Department said that of all the fatal wrecks involving 16 to 24-year-olds, 74 percent of the drivers had at least one drink of alcohol in their life, and 26 percent had their first drink before they were 13 years old.

"It's harder to kick the habit later if you start drinking early," Harris said. "And I know you think that it's cool, but I promise you, it's not. When you're laying on the roadside as a fatality and (the EMS) is coming to put you in a body bag, there's no coming back from that."

Students Adam Stacks and Tyler Black, both 17, said the stories Gaither and Mullinax told made an impression on them.

"I'll remember them telling stories about how their friends died in high school," Stacks said.

He said he never drinks and drives.

"I'm a safe driver," Stacks said. "I haven't had any tickets."

Black said he's been in an accident in which the driver had been drinking and the car struck a median.

Black said he never wants to be in that situation again.

Lisa Conner, 14, said she doesn't think the presentation will make a difference to some students, though.

"Kids are going to do what they want to do, no matter what," she said.

Blake McCourry, 15, isn't one of those. He said some of the drinking statistics and texting information made an impression on him. He hasn't started driving yet, but said he won't do either when he does.