Distracted Driving Victim: "Put Down the Cell Phone"
By: Caroline Tucker
Updated: February 15, 2013
Nearly 5 years ago, Jacy Good's world turned upside down.
It started with a distracted driver on a cell phone.
And now she is criss-crossing the nation to get people to put the phone down.
The 26-year old never imagined standing on a stage before hundreds of high schoolers.
Until her best day turned into her worst.
"We got about half-way way home that afternoon. We stopped at a gas station and I remember stopping at that gas station and there is nothing remarkable about that except it's the very last memory that I have from that day," explained Jacy Good.
Good was heading home from her college graduation in Pennsylvania in May 2008.
A teen on a cell phone ran a red-light.
Then a tractor trailer swerved hitting her family car head on.
Both her parents died.
"The first thing I thought when I found out it was a cell phone was what was he talking about what was he talking about that was more important than my parents lives and more important than my own life," said Good.
She spent several months in the hospital, underwent multiple surgeries, and endured a traumatic brain injury.
"This is what my arm does, I don't have the brain cells to know what to do," showed Good from the auditorium stage.
While teens are often distracted.
"You think it can't happen to you, none of my friends are going to die, I can't kill anyone, I'm invincible because I am a high school student. But that is simply not the case," said Audrey Siebert, a teen driver.
They are hearing a clear message.
"Definitely nothing is worth it and she said it you can't think of anything that is more important than a life," said Summer Howard.
"When you sit in the car please don't pick up your cell phone, please don't use it to make a call, please don't use it to accept a call," said
In Pennsylvania - there were no distracted driving laws when goods parents were killed.
Good says today's laws need to be even tougher.
"If you crash and kill someone you need to go to jail. It should be treated like drunk driving and it's not," said Good.
Whether it's you or someone you know.
"I am going to explain it to my parents and enforce that they don't use their cell phones," said Shyana McLeod, a student
It starts with just one person.
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