'No text is worth dying for...'

Simulator comes to Gravette High School to show students the dangers of texting and driving

Derek Pruitt uses his cell phone in the driving-while-texting simulator which was at Gravette High School before spring break.

Derek Pruitt uses his cell phone in the driving-while-texting simulator which was at Gravette High School before spring break.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

GRAVETTE - Several days ago, on a very windy March day shortly before spring break, Gravette High School students saw a sobering film about the dangers of texting while driving.

“The Last Text” is the title of the short, graphic film that is being shown to teens across the nation through the sponsorship of AT&T. It has been seen by more than three and one-half million teens.

The film has one simple message: “No text is worth dying for ... IT CAN WAIT.”

Teens watching the film also experience a virtual demonstration showing a 3-D simulation that recreates an “eyes-off-the-road” and “hands-off-the-wheel” experience while texting.

The sobering experience is made even more sobering as students are introduced to a teenage girl who, just a few hours before her high school graduation, became a texting accident victim.

No, students did not meet the young lady, a vibrant and beautiful teen who was en route from her Benton County home to meet a friend at a ball park in Springfield, Mo.

They did not meet her. But in the film they saw pictures of her before that tragic May day four years ago. And they met her mother, Merrie Dye, the mother of Mariah West, the girl who missed her graduation. Mariah lost her life as she was fingering her phone when her car left the road on a Missouri highway.

Merrie Dye, who accompanied the AT&T demonstration, told the students at Gravette High of her loss, a loss that has inspired her crusade which emphasizes the message: “No text is worth dying for. IT CAN WAIT.”

Before you learn more about Mariah and Merrie, consider these few facts about texting:

◊More than 100,000 crashes occur each year involving a driver who is texting, causing life-changing injuries and deaths.

◊Tragically, 77 percent of teens have seen their parents text and drive.

◊95 percent of teens know that it is dangerous ... but ... 43 percent of teens admit to texting while driving.

AT&T’s mission is to educate and inform youth around the nation about the dangers of texting while driving.

The simulator and film presentation have made stops at several schools in Arkansas before moving on to share the message in another state.

Teens there are learning about Mariah. And though her mother, Merrie Dye of Rogers, may not accompany the presentation to other states, the teens will see her on the screen as she tells her story.

A strong wind was blowing across the GHS campus that March morning a few weeks ago. Perhaps it was the stiff, chilling wind that caused several eyes to tear. Perhaps it was seeing the visual story as Mariah’s mother and teenage friends gathered to celebrate Mariah’s 19th birthday and remembered their once vibrant classmate. A life that was cut short by an incomplete message on a cell phone. A life of a young lady, Mariah West, who

began her life 19 years earlier in the Gravette Medical Center Hospital.

Mariah’s story doesn’t end. And the message her mother proclaims will never end as she pleads with teens and tells them: “No text is worth dying for; IT CAN WAIT.”

News, Pages 1 on 03/27/2013