These numbers, documented by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), AAA and the National Safety Council have been haunting Jacy Good and her husband, Steve Johnson, for the past seven years. This spring, Manhasset CASA and the SCA sponsored “Hang Up and Drive,” a presentation on how distracted driving has become a national public safety crisis. The program featured Good and Johnson, national public speakers and advocates for cell-free roads. Good is one of the many faces behind the numbers.
Good and Johnson met as freshmen while studying at Muhlenberg College. On May 18, 2008, Good and Johnson’s graduation day, Good got into her parents’ car to drive back to her childhood home, where she would continue to celebrate the opening of a new chapter in her life. While driving back, a teenager who was talking on his phone “forgot he was at a red light and tried to turn left. It never quite registered in his brain,” said Good. An 18-wheeler, who entered the intersection under a green light, swerved to miss the teen after the teen had run the red light and crashed into Good’s car. She was rushed to the hospital with two broken feet, a lacerated liver, a broken tibia and fibula, a shattered pelvis, a broken wrist and collarbone, collapsed lungs, damaged arteries and traumatic brain injury. Her parents died on impact.
Good’s parents were two of the 6,000 people who died in 2008 in crashes involving distracted driving (NHTSA, Distracted Driving Fact Sheet). The driver who caused the car crash, was one of approximately 660,000 drivers, who at any given daylight moment across America, are using a cell phone (NHTSA, 4.5.13). According to the NSC, in the U.S., an estimated 1 in 4 car crashes involves cell phone use (www.nsc.org).
A recent AAA research study of 1,700 teen drivers, it was found that distraction was a factor in 58 percent of all crashes studied.
With the power of words and emotions, Good and Johnson shared a story of love, tragedy, incredible perseverance and strength, all of which worked in tandem to move nearly everyone in the audience to tears. “I need to be here. I’ve been put on this mission. This story needs to be told because these tragedies are happening every single day. Cellphones and driving are a global epidemic that kills thousands of people every year. It’s about every one of us setting a standard for ourselves, setting a standard for the people that we love. I want people to stop killing each other. It’s in your hands to make this world, to make our roads a little bit better place to be. And if my parents left me with anything, it’s that this world is broken, and we can do something to make this world a little bit better,” stated Good in her closing statement.
For more on Good’s story, Public Access Television (PATV) of Great Neck’s Teen TV production of Manhasset CASA’s Prevention through Connection will be available on-line with video on demand at www.patv.org. Manhasset CASA’s Project Director Cathy Samuels interviewed Good to provide community awareness about the dangers of distracted driving. Teen TV members also asked questions on the subject. The new programs will also be cablecast on PATV channels 20 (Cablevision) and 37 (Verizon).
