It is great to see BHS doing something important for their students to see – in a real way – what damage texting and/or distracted driving can do. Here is an article from THE TENNESSEAN released Friday April 24, 2015 … written by Melanie Balakit.

Five Brentwood emergency personnel approached a damaged vehicle with two people, visibly hurt and unconscious, stuck inside.

Emergency personnel began to carefully break the windshields and windows to reach the victims. Using tools, they pried the doors and roof completely off the car.

Dozens of Brentwood High School students watched. It was merely a simulation of emergency response to a car crash.

The message? Don’t text and drive.

The mock car crash was the final event the school hosted in a year-long campaign to combat distracted driving.

Brentwood High and 11 other schools in Middle Tennessee partnered with Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt on the campaign.

There’s a $10,000 prize at stake – but more importantly, lives.

Williamson County has the 11th-highest percentage of teens admitted to the hospital’s trauma unit because of motor vehicle car crashes among 15 Middle Tennessee counties, said Purnima Unni, pediatric trauma injury prevention program manager at the hospital.

Brentwood High School students watch paramedics and a firefighter carry Brentwood High Student Angel Wey, 18, who acts as an injured passenger in the mock car crash in Brentwood, TN. Thursday, April 23, 2015.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Jae S. Lee/The Tennessean)

“It’s hard for law enforcement to say it was because of distracted driving. But we were noticing a huge trend for trauma admissions for motor vehicle crashes,” Unni said.

The “Be In the Zone – Turn Off Your Phone” program is in its fifth year, she said.

“We sit in a hospital and we see all these kids coming in for admission. If we’re addressing teens, the most important place is to go to their high school,” Unni said.

Brentwood High’s DECA team, a student marketing association, took on the campaign.

Since October, campaign managers Ashley Anderson and Katherine Mills led the 143-member DECA team in planning and hosting events and awareness programs.

“Everybody knows it’s bad, but nobody thinks it’s going to happen to them,” Anderson said, referring to distracted driving.

For one week, they offered online courses where students could learn about the dangers of distracted driving. Another week, the entire school watched videos about the dangers of texting and driving each day. Every month, they had booths where they encouraged people to take a pledge to not text and drive. Anderson and Mills estimate at least 300 students have made the pledge.

Twice, students stood at the school’s entrance points and counted people texting and driving while leaving campus. Motivational speakers impacted by distracted driving also visited the school.

The school’s DECA team also created a Twitter account and Facebook page to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving. Posters reminding students not to text and drive can be found throughout the school.

Lisa Nease-Montgomery, the school’s DECA advisor, said the campaign changed her driving habits.

“I used to be really bad about using my phone while driving. Now I don’t,” Nease-Montgomery said.

Senior Angel Wey, covered in fake lacerations, was one of the actresses in the vehicle during the mock car crash.

“It was kind of scary hearing them take the door and roof off,” Wey said.

Wey said she took the pledge to not text and drive earlier in the year.

“I definitely will be focused on my driving. I definitely don’t want to be in this situation,” she said. “I would not want to die early.”

If these kids can learn it now and see the true reality of what can happen because of distraction behind the wheel, lives can be saved and insurance premiums parents or anyone else pays can be less. Congrats to Brentwood High School and these other area schools for teaching “life lessons” that can make a difference in the lives of these students!