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Distracted driving risks highlighted

Wednesday, Dec. 4 was DEAD Day at Summerland Secondary School.
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Students from Summerland Secondary School’s Civics 11 class showed videos about the risks of distracted driving.

Wednesday, Dec. 4 was DEAD Day at Summerland Secondary School.

DEAD — Distractions Endanger All Drivers — was an awareness day highlighting the risks involved with youth and distracted driving.

Students in Grades 10 to 12 gathered at Centre Stage Theatre to watch three powerful  videos produced by the Civics 11 class.

The topics were drinking and driving, drugging and driving and distracted driving.

Civics student Katie Grant said the 90-second videos “contained tragic scenes of car accidents that were meant to shock students.”

But the real shock arrived with the day’s guest speaker.

Greg Drew, a firefighter from Surrey, described the impact of losing his 17-year-old son, Jay, in a high speed accident.

Drew, often crying himself during the speech, evoked tears from many students and teachers.

He even presented the ashes of his son to show students the consequences of impaired and high-speed driving.

He then asked students to go outside and view the wrecked car that his son drove on that terrible night.

Many students then spent the rest of the day hugging each other and reliving stories of car accidents affecting their family and friends.

Drew said he hugged more than 100 students after the presentation.

Another  Civics  student, Abhishek  Lekhi, said DEAD Day was a “powerful, emotional lesson for all of us, but especially for students in the early stages of learning to drive responsibly.”