Hundreds of Area High School Students Hear ‘Buckle Up, Phone Down’ Message

The City of Sedalia and the Sedalia Police Department partnered with MoDOT on Wednesday to present “Buckle Up, Phone Down” at Smith-Cotton High School, 2010 Tiger Pride Blvd.

The program is designed to reduce car crashes due to distracted driving.

In addition to students from Sedalia School District 200, there were high school students from Lincoln, Cole Camp, Versailles, Green Ridge and Sacred Heart.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol and UCM also participated in the event.

The program lasted about four hours overall and took place in the S-C Auditorium, the lobby and outside just north of the Performing Arts Center.

Students were able to interact with displays that included the Walmart No-Zone truck, Arrive Alive Simulator, MO Safety Center simulator, MSHP seatbelt convincer, the UTV simulator, the rollover simulator, PCAD, Sedalia Police and much more.

MoDOT State Engineer Jon Nelson addressed the crowd of high school students gathered in the lobby of the Smith-Cotton PAC.

He talked about the simplicity and importance of buckling up and putting your phone down when you drive.

“It’s four simple words, two simple actions with one life-saving purpose,” Nelson told the students. “So simple, yet so effective when put into practice.”

Nelton went on to note that “every year in Missouri we lose hundreds of people to traffic crashes. That’s hundreds of friends, family members, co-workers, teachers, teammates, hundreds of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, moms and dads, husbands and wives. In fact, last year in Missouri alone, we lost 955 people in traffic crashes.”

Nelson stated that Missouri has already lost 750 people in fatal car crashes so far this year. “This year’s traffic fatalities are only about one or two percent below what it was last year

Nelson said that “while there are diverse reasons and factors that come into play in these tragic events, we do know that with certainty, two behaviors contribute directly to hundreds of these fatalities – not wearing a seat belt, and not putting the phone down while you’re driving.” ‘

He added that “we’ve got to lean into this idea that every single one of us can make a difference.”

In his comments, District 200 Superintendent of Schools Dr. Todd Fraley said that “losing somebody that you care about, because it was your fault, because you were doing something you shouldn’t have been doing, like driving distracted,” Fraley said. “That is something you cannot get over in a lifetime. So keep that in mind.”

In his brief speech, Sedalia Police Chief David Woolery went off script for a moment.

“Throughout my career, when people find out I’m a police officer, they inevitably ask ‘What’s the worst thing you’ve dealt with in your career?’ and I can tell you that for every police officer, the worst things we ever see is dealing with crashes where kids get hurt. And I know you don’t like being referred to as kids, but to use, you’re our kids. So everybody here is investing in your future and your safety,” Woolery said, “and the importance of taking the tools that you learned today and making good decisions on the road.”

MSHP Corporal Justin Ewing was up next at the podium.

“Each one of us has a responsibility to make sure the driver is driving sober, not driving distracted, wearing their seat belt and obeying the speed limit,” Ewing said. “Why? Because we want each of us to make it home by the end of the day.”

Trooper Ewing noted that “the worst part of our job in law enforcement is having to make those  notifications to family members, that someone they care about, whom they love, has been seriously injured or killed in a car crash.”

Ewing went on to say that “those small choices that we make behind the wheel, they have life-altering consequences, both for good …. and for the negative.”

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Up next at the podium was Jacy Good, who shared her most personal and heartbreaking story with the crowd.

It took place on her college graduation day, May 18, 2008.

“My parents and I did not make it home from my graduation ceremony,” she said, adding that she woke up a month later in the hospital, trying to figure out what had happened.

“Half my body doesn’t work, a half dozen bones broken, damaged organs,” she recalled. “Mom & dad were in the car with me, and neither of them made it out.”

What happened was a high schooler in another car was on his cell phone, blew through a red light and slammed into the Good vehicle.

“The crash took my parents’ lives,” Good stated. “My mom did not have her seat belt on. I will spend the rest of my life wondering would I still have my mom if she had her seat belt on.”

Good went to say that “I gotta share this story, because I don’t want you guys to have to feel this. This hurts too much. And it never needs to happen again. But only if we do something about it. I have shared this story all over the country and in other countries. This campaign is awesome, it is so simple. Buckle up. It makes a difference. Put the phone down. Help protect yourself, help protect the people you love. Because I feel this pain every day. And I know maybe some of you do, too. Maybe is we share our stories, we can use that so no one else feels that pain. We’re gonna make this world safer and better for all of us, really,” Good concluded.

Students were encouraged to sign a large poster board in the lobby to pledge to always wear their seat belt and stay off the phone while driving.

In the top photo: MSHP Cpl. Justin Ewing speaks with Jacy Good, who lost her parents in a distracted driving crash in 2008 on the night of her college graduation. Good was also seriously injured in the crash. She was the featured speaker at Wednesday's "Buckle Up, Phone Down" program at Smith-Cotton High School.