‘Ghost Out’ warns teens of distracted driving risks
Students Against Destructive Decisions, an organization devoted to preventing unsafe driving behavior, has been producing a program designed to demonstrate the real world consequences of distracting driving behavior. The program, entitled Ghost Out, attempts to reenact the chain of events surrounding a fatal accident from the crash to the funeral of the victims to the trial and sentencing of the teen driver at fault. A volunteer playing the part of a young driver who kills a toddler with her car while attempting to send a text message wears a prisoner’s uniform to a mock trial where an actor playing a judge gives her a prison sentence over the screams of the victim’s mourning mother.
The program begins with a police officer calling students out of class to meet an actor portraying the grim reaper. These students represent the victims of a fatal traffic collision for the rest of the school day, and they aren’t allowed to talk to the other students for the duration of the day. More than 3,000 people were killed in auto collisions linked to distracted driving, according to a report released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
As a personal injury attorney in San Jose, I have seen firsthand the harm drivers can cause others when they allow themselves to be distracted behind the wheel. If you have been injured in an accident linked to an inattentive driver, please consider hiring a car accident attorney in San Jose.
