Teens speak out for safer roads

Flashing blue lights lit up the intersection of Candlers Mountain Road and University Boulevard, and almost 50 teenagers gathered along the roadside Wednesday night.

These teenagers were not in trouble. They were simply watching as law enforcement officers arrested three drivers on charges of driving under the influence, three on drug charges and one on underage possession of alcohol.

Law enforcement and others hope that this, and the other events of the Youth of Virginia Speak Out About Traffic Safety retreat held at Liberty University, will teach teens to drive safely when they get behind the wheel.

The retreat’s mission is to play a part in reducing teenage deaths from car crashes.

“Traffic crashes are the number one killer of this age group,” said Elizabeth Ferguson, training and marketing coordinator. “We want to give them the tools to help prevent those deaths.”

Last year, 132 teenagers in Virginia died in car crashes.

“I get sick and tired going to someone’s house in the middle of the night and waking someone up to tell them to come to the hospital, to the morgue to identifytheir son or daughter that was killed in a motor vehicle crash because they were not wearing their seat belt,” said Master Trooper Tim Harris, of the Virginia State Police.

“Like Capt. (Paul) Kvasnicka said, ‘If we lose one, it’s too many.’”

On Thursday, a smashed red car sat in a parking lot on Liberty University’s campus.

The scenario: A 16-year-old driver ran off the road, overcorrected and the car flipped, killing two of his passengers and injuring two more.

The teenager had been drinking. He wasn’t allowed to have more than one passenger in the car. He was speeding. He was distracted. Because of that, this fictitious teenager is facing two manslaughter charges.

“Has anybody run off the road before? Not been paying attention? We all have,” said Area Commander M.L. Bailey, of the Virginia State Police. “In Pittsylvania County, a driver not paying attention hit another head on. It’s real. It happened this morning.”

Al Philp, trauma services coordinator for Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, talked to students about the traumas he sees.

“These are preventable injuries,” Philp said. “All of these folks want them to do well and succeed and be successful without some tragedy.”

The demonstrations and talks, including a woman who lost her arm in a drunken driving-related car crash, left its impact on the participants.

“Everyone who gets in my car will wear their seat belts,” said Hannah Dudley, of Franklin County High School.

Her friend, Taylor Lyle, agreed. Rachel Lynch said she learned to look out for others, to make sure that no one she’s around gets behind the wheel after they have been drinking, and to pay attention all the time when she is behind the wheel.

Justin Collins, 16, said he’s been in his high school’s club since his freshman year at Lord Botetourt High School.

“I liked what it was about, what it pointed toward,” Collins said.

Annie Watts first joined the action group when she was 14 at her mother’s insistence. She is 17 now. The seat belt message hit home to her.

“It takes just two seconds to save lives,” Watts said. “Too many people are not buckling up.”

The group also held demonstrations using drunken-driving goggles, airbag demos, field sobriety tests,and the seat belt convincer, a device that lets students feel the impact of a sudden stop.

Thursday night, a candlelight vigil was held in honor of all the teenagers who died in crashes last year.

The action group has two retreats each year, one in the fall and one in the summer. The retreats are hosted at various areas in southwestern and Central Virginia.

There are 85 students participating in the retreat, representing almost 20 different high schools. The retreat is open to students ages 14 to 18 years old from member schools and their sponsors.

The program goes into schools to train students how to be traffic safety advocates. High schools in the Lynchburg area that participate are Altavista, Amherst, Appomattox, Brookville, Jefferson Forest, Liberty, Rustburg, Staunton River and William Campbell.

“We want to empower them to go back to their communities and put their knowledge to use,” said Morgan Dillon, program support coordinator and regional trainer for the action group.

The group began in Roanoke in 2001 as a response to the increasing number of teenagers dying in crashes in Virginia. It is funded through a Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles grant. It is administered through and sponsored by the Virginia State Police Association.

According to statistics from the group, 64 percent of teens killed in crashes on Virginia’s roadways in 2006 were not wearing seat belts. Speed was a factor in half the fatal crashes and running off the road and overcorrecting was the cause of 49 percent of those deaths. Alcohol or drug use accounted for a quarter of the fatal crashes.

“The worst thing an officer ever has to do is tell somebody that their loved one is not coming home,” said Officer M.W. Rorer, of the Liberty University Police Department. “I’ve had to do that too many times.”

Jordan Vaught gets a chance to see what it feels like to run into something while moving at 5 mph in a cart.