http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/billingspu_7514.mp3
Texting while driving has become a serious issue, and many people are cracking down on this bad habit. Billings High School decided to take the dramatic route in trying to keep students safe at the wheel. KSMU’s Adam Hammons went to Billings High School to see its
docudrama.http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/ksmunews/albumid/5532075127593787201?alt=rss&kind=photo&hl=en_US
At around 1 in the afternoon, students from Billings High School filed outside. They saw two crashed cars with fellow students lying inside in what appeared to be blood. After a few minutes of waiting, this is what they heard.
It’s called a docudrama, and it’s a re-enactment of what might happen if two cars hit head on. Students acting in the drama yelled to each other, implying that texting was the reason for the fake crash. The other car had beer cans around the tires suggesting the other driver was drinking.
After a while sirens blared, and rescue crewes arrived on the scene. Firefighters and paramedics helped the students trapped in the cars, and the coroner came to take away two of the students representing the dead.
The hope of the drama is to keep this emotional scene in students’ heads so they won’t text and drive nor drink and drive.
Stephanie Bos is a sophomore at Billings.
“It was really realistic and eye-opening for us students because we really needed to see that. Because in the real life that’s what happens and I know Marionville had a loss this summer, and it really touched a lot of us.”
Abby Brown is a senior at Billings. She acted in the drama, sitting in the back seat of one car with fake blood on her face.
“It was emotional seeing my class-mates being portrayed as dead, and hearing another class-mate moaning and groaning because she’s hurt so bad. [They were] real emotions, I was really, really upset.”
Both students say they will not text and drive in the future.
The docu-drama was a joint effort between the high school, Cox Health, Christian County Sheriff’s Department, and the Highway Patrol.
In Missouri, it’s illegal for anyone under 21 to text while driving. Law enforcement officers have said while that’s a good law, it’s hard to enforce.
For KSMU News, I’m Adam Hammons.