A single gray car with the driver’s side door smashed in and its passenger seat removed, sat idly in the shade of a tree by the Holland Bowl.  A small teddy bear sits nearby it and a wreath of flowers hangs in the jamb of the ruined car door.  On the hood of the car, posters are attached to raise awareness of the Texting While Driving: The Wake Up Call program, which was held Wednesday, April 21 in the New Classroom Building auditorium.

The program, organized and presented by James Shropshire of the Student Union Advisory Board (S.U.A.B.), was inspired by a segment on the Oprah Winfrey Show and ran on the slogan, “Don’t tempt fate. That text can wait.”

“I always try to do a socially conscious program every year, solely individually based,” said Shropshire, a public relations major from Charlotte. “This year, I didn’t know what to do and I saw a show on Oprah and I was really moved by that. At the time I didn’t really see the whole thing, but I knew it was important to talk about so I took the idea and I ran with it and I just put all my time and energy into it.”

Shropshire alluded to his student conservation project last year titled the “End of Semester Paper Trail Shropshire Initiative,” in which 250 pounds of nonrefundable books, posters, projects and old papers were collected from students and recycled and students were awarded C.A.S.E. hours in return.

Students who attended this year’s program and completed a small survey at the end were also able to obtain community service hours.

Students were given fact sheets with teen driving statistics compiled by Allstate representatives as they entered the auditorium. 

The program began with a public service announcement from England that depicted a devastating accident caused by a teen that was texting while driving, which provoked a mixture of shocked reactions from the audience.

Shropshire then gave an opening speech for the occasion where he likened texting and driving to playing a game of Russian roulette. 

Following the student leader’s speech, Attorney Lawrence Egerton, Jr. presented a clip of the Dr. Phil Show featuring a teenager who frequently texted while driving. Egerton also presented his own statistics, knowledge of the laws regarding texting and humorous stories about a girl who fell into a manhole while walking and texting, and his own daughter’s “sexting.” 

Students were then allowed to have a brief question and answer session with Egerton before Shropshire turned the floor over to Alexis Mack, a senior speech communication studies major from Raleigh, who was involved in a wreck on Easter weekend, caused by a driver texting. 

Mack’s appearance, with her left arm in a sling and a neck brace, only compounded her words in her emotional testimonial that moved audience members.

After the testimonial, Shropshire engaged the audience in a Q&A once more so students could talk about their own personal experiences and offer possible causes and solutions for the “texting while driving epidemic.”

As the event drew to a close Shropshire offered students to sign a “No Phone Zone” pledge stating they would not drive while texting.  Any who signed the pledge would be eligible to have their name entered in a drawing for an unknown, valuable prize.  In the end, Shropshire lit a single candle for Alyssa Grace Burns, a high school student who lost her life as a result of a driver texting and others who died from the same cause.

“Like I was telling someone else before, it’s not about when you put a poster out, it’s about the execution as well.  Basically, I was just moved to tell the stories of people who had been victimized by texting and driving because a lot of people think that it won’t happen or can’t happen to them, like it’s impossible, or they have a halo wrapped around their heads,” said Shropshire.

Patrick Mills, a freshman animal science major from Raleigh said, “[The program] has made me very aware of how devastating texting while driving can be.  It made me more conscious and aware, especially having Alexis come in and tell us her story. I’m going to try to stop texting and driving and try to prevent others from doing it as well.”

Shropshire made a reference to a statistic that claims that texting while driving is now more dangerous than driving drunk as thousands of people lose their lives every year simply by texting while operating their vehicles.

The Charlotte native said that even though the event did not go perfectly as he had planned it, he felt students received the intended message that texting and driving was a danger, which is a step to breaking the chain as students change their own habits and influence others as well.

“Before I didn’t really realize how texting could be very deadly, but now that I came to this program and saw how people text and got into such fatal accidents it really hit home to me,” said Sonya Stanley, a junior chemical engineering major from Raleigh.  “This can happen to me or anyone else so this was a really good program, very impacting and something everyone needs to hear about.”

Shropshire said that he hopes that students will be the ones to take the initiative, not to just gain favor or boost their resumes, but to make a difference.

“I was just a student with a dream and plan who was able to work with administrators and students to put that plan into action,” Shropshire said. 

“We can have fun and have programs where there’s entertainment and laughing and playing, but what happens if you’re going to a concert and you’re texting and driving and you don’t make it?  That’s tragic. So we must learn to be socially conscious and make positive changes in life, and take life to another dimension and not care about what people are doing or what people may say about you or your program. If it’s helping people then it’s a good thing.”

• Marcus Thompson