Christiansburg High School students learn impacts of unsafe driving

YOVASO's ScanEd program teaches 200 students

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – Christiansburg High School students know the pain of losing a classmate all too well, still having mourned 16-year-old Ashlyn Poole.

She was thrown from the passenger seat of a car and killed last July. Investigators said the driver was going more than double the speed limit.

Now organizations like Youth of Virginia Speak Out, or YOVASO, are trying to make sure students never have to deal with a loss like that again.

YOVASO has taken its “ScanEd: Physics of a Crash" program to high schools all across Virginia. On Tuesday, it came to Christiansburg.

Students scan QR codes attached to various items that takes them to a video, showing real-life consequences of unsafe driving and passenger behaviors.

"It kind of scares you, like you can literally die from that or not paying attention, being on your phone while driving," sophomore Annabell Woolwine said.

"It’s just a really interactive way to help them to see that it can happen to me, that they're not invincible," YOVASO program development coordinator Casey Taylor said.

Taylor said it all comes back to bad decision-making. That's why this program teaches students the consequences.

"It may be that you go to jail, it may be that you have community service, you might get this or that, but you could also lose your life or impact someone else and they can lose their life and then impact their family," Taylor said.

"Don’t be distracted, don't text and drive because it can't only cost your life, but other people's also," Woolwine said.

About 200 students, all in drivers education, took part in the program Tuesday.


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