Safe teen drivers get the spotlight

In the difficult campaign to stop teens from texting when they drive, state troopers employ old-school tactics: Scare 'em into submission.

Students at Raleigh's Enloe High last week sat through a jarring YouTube video that comes straight from the horror-movie tradition of driver's ed.

It begins with giggly schoolgirls texting their way down a road in Wales. It ends in a bloody pileup and a child's plaintive cry: "Mommy, Daddy, wake up."

"That's what's happening out there," Trooper Kevin Hennelly announced as the lights came up. A big man with a booming voice, he towered over the teens at their desks.

"Every trooper here has seen terrible situations like that," Hennelly told them. "We have to go to your house and tell your mother and dad you're not coming home."

But researchers based in Chapel Hill talk about something else happening out there. After standing near high school parking lots to study 20,000 young drivers across the state, they're putting out an upbeat message.

"Most of the time, 91 percent of the time, teens are off the phone while driving," said Arthur Goodwin, a senior researcher at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center. "That runs counter to what you hear about teens."

Goodwin has seen the gruesome Welsh video.

"Videos like that initially hit you hard," he said. "Unfortunately, there's no research to show they have a long-term effect on people's behavior."

But risky drivers can be swayed by a positive campaign to reinforce good habits, he said. UNC researchers have seen good results after they publicized statistics to show that most drivers wear seat belts and most college students stay sober.

Now they are targeting Wake County teens with a Facebook competition that celebrates safe drivers. Thirteen Wake high schools have Facebook pages touting UNC findings that, at any given time, nine out of 10 teen drivers are not phoning or texting.

Millbrook High students earned $500 in September for signing up the most Facebook fans for their "9 out of 10" page -- with 2,275 as of Monday. After a second count is taken Dec. 15, another $500 prize will be awarded.

Alex Watkins, a Millbrook senior, hopes the campaign will get through to those teen drivers who can't keep their hands off their phones.

"I think if they see it and read it, they'll think, 'Maybe I should hang up and drive,' " she said. "I think it'll help get students off the phone."

But it turns out that Watkins herself is one of those worrisome teens who text while they drive. She exemplifies the challenges faced by UNC and the Highway Patrol.

Firsthand experience

Watkins has seen the Welsh video, too. She calls it "a big wake-up call."

And she tells the story of a friend who wrecked her car a year ago -- driving while she talked on her phone with Watkins.

"I heard the whole thing," Watkins said. "It was terrible. She broke her leg."

So she knows the risks she takes as she continues to talk and text in her car.

"I've definitely cut back a lot," Watkins said. "I'm gonna try to stop for sure."

She recruited some of her 1,393 Facebook friends to sign onto Millbrook's "9 out of 10" page. She likes to stay in touch online, and in her car.

"Teenagers today want to be social," Watkins said. "They want to be talking with their friends and making plans and just being in the loop with everything.

"And they feel like that five minutes they're driving, they can't be out of the loop for that period of time. Teenagers are just busy people."

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