GILROY—California Highway Patrol Officer Chris Miceli’s message to Gilroy’s high school seniors is simple: reckless and distracted driving kill. They are the No. 1 killer of America’s teenagers.
Miceli gave presentations Oct. 26 to groups of seniors at Christopher High School about teen driver safety. The presentations began Sept. 28 at Gilroy High School, following the deaths this year of four local high school students on Gilroy roadways in two separate crashes.
Students packed the theater room at CHS and watched a video that detailed the events leading up to the death of a 17-year-old Ohio girl named Sydnee Williams. Miceli walked students through the decisions she made—which ultimately caused her own death.
Williams sent a text message while she was driving a car and lost control. She crashed, was ejected from the car and sustained serious injuries. Eventually she was taken off life support, Miceli told students.
Williams’ parents have shared their daughter’s story in hopes that other teenagers will come to recognize how deadly a split-second decision to use a cellphone can be.
Speaking to about 50 Christopher High seniors, Miceli added: “The main thing is most of this is preventable. That’s why I’m here to talk about it.” He said national statistics show 11 stories like Williams’ take place on a daily basis.
Approximately 660,000 drivers across the nation at any given moment are using electronic devices while in control of a motor vehicle, according to data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. That figure has held steady in recent years, despite a 2009 statewide ban on the use of handheld electronics by drivers.
The NHTSA reports that drivers under 20 are involved in the most distraction-related fatal crashes.
Explaining his goal in presenting to local students, Miceli said it’s to get as many of them through school alive as he can. During the presentation Oct. 26, he held up a black t-shirt with a large skull on it, comprised of white dots. Each represents an individual death caused by reckless or distracted driving.
“You are our future. I don’t want you to become another white dot on my t-shirt when I’m here next year,” Miceli told one CHS group.
Williams was known to her friends and family as someone who didn’t wear her seatbelt regularly. Miceli said that although she had restrictions on her driver’s license at the time of the crash, it takes “thousands of hours” to perfect a skill like driving. The decisions other drivers make, even those passengers make, all matter, he stressed.
Miceli said one of the most common fatal mistakes—aside from texting and driving or other distracted and reckless behaviors—is over-steering at high speeds to compensate when a vehicle goes off the road.
He described a vehicle hurtling down the road at 70 mph as a “metal beast.” The faster you go, the less movement the steering wheel requires, Miceli told students.
Specifically addressing the CHS seniors in the room, he called on them to serve as role models for younger students. The presentations, put on through Impact Teen Drivers, are designed to reach them on an emotional level, Miceli said.
A $1,500 scholarship to pay for college is available through Impact Teen Drivers to students who create a video, a song or a poster that hammers home the message about the dangers of distracted and reckless driving.
At the end of one of his presentations, Miceli played a video called “Practice Safe Texting” that featured the father of a teenage girl talking to his daughter’s boyfriend for the first time. Not looking at his daughter’s “astronomically large cellphone” while driving was the key message. But it seemed to stick with CHS seniors, many of whom cracked up at the scenario.
Afterwards, Miceli stressed students should avoid dangerous situations anytime they’re in a car.
“This is as good as it gets for me right now; you’re all safe,” he told the CHS group.
