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It was only a portion of a video shown to high school students, but for the parents and grandparents attending Monday’s Open House at the Carthage High School, it was enough.
It showed, in MTV-like rapid shots, photos of wrecked cars and trucks and the destruction such vehicle can wrought when out of control — twisted metal, burning rubber and mutilated, bleeding corpses of young teens.
“That’s something that we in law enforcement see quite a bit,” said Sgt. Mike Watson, a trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, to the crowd of about 40.
Teen driving was one of five subjects at the forum because, based on MSHP statistics, the group under the age of 21 has the most accidents, Watson said.
Here are some cold facts:
• Motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of teen death in the United States — “nothing else,” Watson said.
• Teens are 10 times more likely to die in a vehicular accident than the average driver. “I’m not down on teen driving, but there is no substitute for experience in teen driving.
• Six thousand teens die each year in the U.S. Watson said he joined MSHP 17 years ago, and in that time, “over 100,000 teenagers have died.”
• A teenager is injured in a motor vehicle accident every 15 minutes.
The best way for a teenager to survive, or for a parent to help their kids survive when they reach the driving age, is to practice “avoidance and survivability.”
The “avoidance” part means to avoid the types of teen activity that causes inattention when driving — talking or texting on cell phones, talking to a friend in the car, eating or paying more attention to the stereo.
“Survivability” is simple — seatbelts. In many of the photos of dead teens in the slideshow Watson played, some lay crumpled far from their vehicles, having been ejected at the point of impact through the windshield.
One of the most haunting moments in Watson’s presentation was describing what he calls the worst part of his job. From there, he detailed what he has to do when informing a mother and father about the death of their son or daughter, including knocking on their door, rousing groggy-eyed parents from their beds, sitting them down in chairs or atop a couch, telling them their son or daughter would no longer be coming home and, at last, handing them their son’s wallet or daughter’s purse, extracted by Watson from the scene of the accident.
“My biggest hope is that I’ll never have to do that again… in my lifetime, telling them their sons or daughters will never be coming back,” he said.
It was only a portion of a video shown to high school students, but for the parents and grandparents attending Monday’s Open House at the Carthage High School, it was enough.
It showed, in MTV-like rapid shots, photos of wrecked cars and trucks and the destruction such vehicle can wrought when out of control — twisted metal, burning rubber and mutilated, bleeding corpses of young teens.
“That’s something that we in law enforcement see quite a bit,” said Sgt. Mike Watson, a trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, to the crowd of about 40.
Teen driving was one of five subjects at the forum because, based on MSHP statistics, the group under the age of 21 has the most accidents, Watson said.
Here are some cold facts:
• Motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of teen death in the United States — “nothing else,” Watson said.
• Teens are 10 times more likely to die in a vehicular accident than the average driver. “I’m not down on teen driving, but there is no substitute for experience in teen driving.
• Six thousand teens die each year in the U.S. Watson said he joined MSHP 17 years ago, and in that time, “over 100,000 teenagers have died.”
• A teenager is injured in a motor vehicle accident every 15 minutes.
The best way for a teenager to survive, or for a parent to help their kids survive when they reach the driving age, is to practice “avoidance and survivability.”
The “avoidance” part means to avoid the types of teen activity that causes inattention when driving — talking or texting on cell phones, talking to a friend in the car, eating or paying more attention to the stereo.
“Survivability” is simple — seatbelts. In many of the photos of dead teens in the slideshow Watson played, some lay crumpled far from their vehicles, having been ejected at the point of impact through the windshield.
One of the most haunting moments in Watson’s presentation was describing what he calls the worst part of his job. From there, he detailed what he has to do when informing a mother and father about the death of their son or daughter, including knocking on their door, rousing groggy-eyed parents from their beds, sitting them down in chairs or atop a couch, telling them their son or daughter would no longer be coming home and, at last, handing them their son’s wallet or daughter’s purse, extracted by Watson from the scene of the accident.
“My biggest hope is that I’ll never have to do that again… in my lifetime, telling them their sons or daughters will never be coming back,” he said.
