“I hit one tree, hit another tree and then I hit the last tree. Everything happened so fast, but I remember thinking a lot in that time,” Whitney High School senior Sarah Deveny said. “When I finally stopped, the first thing I did was make sure all my body parts were there. I looked in the mirror and saw I had cuts on my face and I was bleeding.”
It started out as any other typical day for Deveny. She came to school and headed out to see her STARS kids, but it was on her way back that things took a wrong turn.

“My boyfriend (Austin Fortier) and I were driving next to each other and the next thing I know, I look over and we were right next to each other. He clipped the back of my car and we both ended up swerving and going into the median,” Deveny said.

Fortier was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance shortly after the accident due to a cut in his head. Though he did not suffer fatal injuries from the accident, the experience was surreal.

“When you’re in it, it’s pretty much just shock. You try to correct and you over correct because you’re freaking out,” Fortier said.

Deveny was driven to the hospital by her mother and is now on crutches due to torn ligaments from the accident. Accidents like Deveny’s are common among teenage drivers. According to the Allstate Foundation and KeeptheDrive.com, “More than 81,000 people were killed in crashes involving drivers ages 15 to 20 from 2000 to 2009,” making it the leading cause of death for teenagers.

Road safety is a topic reviewed at length in all high school driver’s education programs. However, no amount of teaching can substitute hands-on experience and the practice of safe driving. It is vital that all drivers know the DMV handbook, follow all road rules and take the time to learn their car. Understanding how a car functions can ease the drive and possibly prevent collisions.

“When you drive a car, it’s important to know about it because you’re going to be driving around other people. You don’t want to endanger them,” Whitney High School senior Justin Lemke said. “You just have to put in the time and practice driving to get used to it.”

There are many programs dedicated to educating students about road safety and helping teenagers understand the implications of driving. For example, Every 15 Minutes is a simulated production conducted by Whitney to show students the consequences of bad driving habits such as drunk driving. Mindless distractions can become deadly behind the wheel.

Texting and driving, for example, increases your risk of being in a collision by 23 times. To raise awareness and prevent students from taking part in texting and driving, Whitney High School passed out wristbands advocating safe driving and encouraged students to sign a pledge stating they would not text and drive.

An average of 11 teens die everyday in preventable car crashes, take the Friends For Life pledge to make sure you’re not one of them.

by ILAF ESUF