NAHS students pledge to ‘X the TXT‘

North Augusta High School students left their thumbprints on a "Txtng Klls' banner at an 'X the TXT' presentation Wednesday.

NORTH AUGUSTA -- North Augusta High School juniors and seniors took the pledge and sealed it with a thumbprint Wednesday at an "X the TXT" presentation on the dangers of texting while driving.

The presentation was given by Allstate agent Allen Simmons, Steve Deibel of the South Carolina chapter of the National Safety Council and Lt. Verne Sadler of the North Augusta Department of Public Safety. After the speakers were through, the students were asked to recite a no-texting-while-driving pledge, placed their thumbprints on a "Txtng Klls" banner on the gymnasium wall and received "Txtng Klls" thumb rings to remind them not to text while driving.

"Distracted driving is the No. 1 killer of young people in the country. I know you probably thought it was alcohol-related deaths, and there are a lot of those, but this is number one," Simmons said. "Driving 55 miles an hour while receiving a text is like shutting your eyes while driving 100 yards. Can you imagine driving 100 yards blind?"

Simmons also said studies liken distracted driving to the effects of driving after drinking four beers; the websites documenting the studies to support that analogy were listed on a pledge card the students were given at the end of the program.

"Leave the other things alone, folks. You'll think, 'It can't happen to me,' but it does and it will. I've been in the business for 35 years, and I've seen it happen too many times," Simmons said. "Life is about choices. If you don't make the right choices now, you won't have the opportunity later in life to make some of the choices you'd like to make."

Sadler spoke on his work in the traffic control division.

South Carolina has had one documented fatality from texting while driving, he said.

"There's not a law against it in South Carolina; there is in Georgia, and I expect there will be one here before too long," he said.

Deibel said that 31 young people from ages 15 to 24 in South Carolina die each month in car accidents. Of those 31, 26 do not wear seat belts. Cell phones are the top distraction among that group, and speeding is their top offense.

"Every one of those numbers is a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, a member of a junior class or a senior class. If you've ever had to go to a graduation with an empty chair, trust me, you never want to go to another one," he said. "As you go through this time, homecoming, prom, graduation, the best time of all our lives -- the only difference between us and you is that we survived our mistakes. Will you?"

The program won over at least one convert to closing the cell phone while driving. NAHS assistant principal Charles Gregory told the students he had taken the X the TXT pledge.

"Anybody who knows me knows I'm one of the world's worst driving-while-texting people. I'll admit to it; I'm big enough," Gregory told the students. "But I'm going to stop, because I truly do believe it is a hazard, and today was an eye-opening experience for myself. I hope it was for you as well."

Contact Suzanne Stone at sstone@aikenstandard.com.