Students Get Sobering Reality of Safe Driving

It was a day when physics and health came together — all to save lives.

Isaac Newton's First Law, also known as the Law of Inertia, is known as such: A body in motion will remain in motion, unless acted on by an outside force.

Like, for example, when a car collides with a tree or another vehicle. The driver and his or her passengers will continue to be projected forward, unless stopped by a seatbelt.

Without a seatbelt, the bodies remain in motion — and through the windshield.

The horrors and realities of reckless, careless and negligent driving were made evident Tuesday during health classes at North Penn High School, courtesy of the North Penn Safe Schools Committee, Montgomery County Health Department, Pennsylvania State Police, PennDOT and Hatfield Township Police. 

"Survival 101" educated juniors at the high school — some of which are driving and others who have yet to get behind the wheel — on how to be safe on the roadways, by being cognizant of and avoiding distractions.

Pennsylvania State Trooper Morgan Crummy went through the distractions and dangers of driving. She emphasized how drivers 18 and older are responsible for every person in his or her vehicle wearing a seatbelt.

Crummy and students fired off various distractions in the car: texting, cell phone, radio, friends, food. She informed them that law enforcement doesn't condone hands-free devices as it prevents the driver from being focused on driving. Crummy said all these examples of distractions can be controlled in the vehicle.

Texting while driving, Crummy said, is illegal. While it is legal to text while stopped at a red light, Crummy said the driver still has eyes off his or her surroundings.

"Even if you're at light, and you look down, what have you missed? Whatever happened in front of you," she said. "We want you checking mirrors, checking in front of you."

Crummy warned about driving under the influence, which includes not just alcohol, but also illegal drugs and prescription medications. Even taking too much Sudafed or Robitussin, called "Robotripping," can have serious ramifications.

"We can test you for it. If you have an excessive amount in your system, we can say you were grossly negligent," Crummy said. "It's reckless driving, a complete disregard for others."

Crummy said there is a new traffic law where drivers can be charged with aggravated assault by a motor vehicle, usually in accidents where serious T-bone accidents cause fractured bones and intubation to other people.

"It's not just trying to hurt someone deliberately; you cause serious bodily injury to someone in the course of being grossly negligent," Crummy said. "That's jail time. That's potentially serious."

Sgt. David McCreesh, of Hatfield Township Police, told students about the three parts of distracted driving: visual, manual and cognizant. Visual is those instances when the driver themselves is distracted, and manual is when the driver is distracted by items that take his or her concentration away from the road. Cognizant distractions, he said, are those that everybody has experienced.

"All three are required to operate a motor vehicle safely," McCreesh said. "We have to use them. One of the worst things to do is text while driving."

The texting while driving portion of the presentation included some math in McCreesh's explanation. At a speed of 55mph, a driver is traveling 75 feet a second. A text, he said, takes five seconds, and that driver has traveled 375 feet in that five second period.

"I've now traveled farther than a football field, and I haven't paid attention to anything because I was texting," he said. "Anything could happen in 375 feet."

McCreesh said the average person takes 1.6 seconds to react to a situation. At 75 feet a second, it takes someone 105 feet to perceive something is wrong and put a plan into action, he said.

"That's almost 500 feet to steer away or hit the brakes," he said. "Kids your age are 9 percent of the motoring public. Of that 9 percent, 19 percent have accidents that are fatal. Thirty-one percent have accidents caused by alcohol. Forty-one percent kill themselves, and 21 percent kill their passenger."

Students also learned that one accident results in three collisions: the vehicle hitting an object, the body or bodies hitting the interior of the vehicle and the internal organs of those bodies, say the brain or lungs, hitting the skull or ribcage. 

All three can cause serious bodily damage and death.

"These are the kinds of things you have to think about. It's not a joke," McCreesh said. "You continue moving when that car stops. Wear your seatbelt. Sixty percent of fatalities can be avoided if you wear a seatbelt."

Crummy said seatbelts and airbags go hand-in-hand.

"We want you to be responsible for yourselves, and to be responsible for those inside your vehicle," Crummy said. "We want you to think of children and loved ones in other cars. You cannot be careless and reckless because you feel like it."

Crummy said law enforcement do not want to be making any death notifications to parents.

"Hopefully, you'll take it to heart," she said. "We talk with parents who lose kids in accidents. It's a parent's worst nightmare. Take it to heart when you're driving."

North Penn High School Assistant Principal Neil Broxterman said the program was coordinated by county health department employee and Safe Schools Committee member Katie Kucz.

"We chose eleventh grade because of the age, knowing a good chunk have started driving or soon will be," Broxterman said. "It goes with our health curriculum, where students learn how to make healthy decisions."

Kucz said the program was made possible via a Community Traffic Safety grant. All in all, 19 programs will be taught over four days, ending Thursday, to more than 877 students at various high schools in the county.

Junior Samantha Stoler said she learned a lot more about a car accident itself.

"The way the sergeant talked about how a car crashes and it stops, but the body is still moving afterward, and your organs are moving into your bones ... it's more than you think about," Stoler said.

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