Heading out on a Saturday night, 17-year-old Scott Neill said goodbye to his parents, and they replied with the standard parental response: “Don’t do anything silly and be safe. Make good choices.”
“You worry too much,” Scott told his mother.
“Maybe we didn’t worry enough,” Scott’s father, Louis Neill, said Wednesday to the senior class.
Neill reassured students that he wasn’t here to scare them, but to encourage them not to text while driving – the distraction that cost his son, Scott, his life last May.
“Life’s about choices,” Neill said. “You can be just like Scott – funny, outgoing, talented – and then make one wrong choice, and you’re dead.”
The presentation, a collaborative effort of HOSA, DECA, Digital Dreamers Club, International Leadership Club and Allstate Insurance converted a bad situation into a potentially life-changing campaign. It was the first school event advocating against texting and driving, as a part of senior rotations on PSAT day.
As Neill shared his story, a picture of Scott standing next to his new Infiniti flashed on the screen. But within seconds, students saw the mess that was left of his car as a result of distracted driving.
“It was really quiet the whole time, and really intense,” senior Colton Besett said. “A few people started crying. People were taking it seriously.”
Seniors received a heavy load of statistics. The National Safety Council (NSC) released a study earlier this year in which they estimate that more than 200,000 accidents each year are caused directly by texting while driving. The NSC reported that texting can multiply the chances of being in an accident by eight to 23 times. Additionally, 22 percent of fatal accidents for teen drivers involved cell phone use.
“They said that looking down for five seconds while going 55 miles per hour is like driving the length of a football field completely blind,” Besett said. “That scared me. I’ve been focusing more on driving and less on my phone, even starting last night.”
After the presentation, hundreds of students pledged to not text behind the wheel by pressing their thumbs in blue ink and placing their fingerprints on a banner provided by Allstate, a major sponsor of the event.
Although there is no law against texting while driving in Cedar Park, Austin placed a ban on using mobile devices while driving at the beginning of this year. Hands-free devices are still permitted. Cell phone use is banned in school zones state-wide, but only if signs dictating the ban are present.
Travis County public information officer Roger Wade said the local jurisdiction – that is, the county or city – is responsible for paying for and putting up these signs. Buying or making the signs originally took some time, but Wade said all school zones will have the signs in the future.
The presentation changed students’ perspectives on distracted driving. And with the pledge that many took to stop texting while driving, there is a newfound sentiment against the practice.
“If Scott could speak to us today, I guarantee he would tell you, ‘Don’t do what I did’,” Neill said. “This has changed me forever. And in some ways, it’s made me a better person. It makes you realize how important life is, and with just one decision, how quickly it can be gone.”
For more information…
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Allstate Teen Driver Distractions
