Recently, the Northwood community has experienced many car crashes, ranging from a series of fender benders in the intersection outside the school to a serious crash that resulted in the death of former student Trey Wallace.
Often, the difference between a fatal accident and a dented bumper is only a few seconds.
“Anything that can distract people and take their eyes off the road for a second [could result] in a collision,” said Sergeant Jonathan Davis of the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
Car accidents are the number one killer of teenagers in America. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teenagers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely to crash than older drivers. Inexperience is certainly a factor, but some point to the number of distractions teen drivers face as an explanation for the increased number.
“I think there is a lot of research that says teenagers are generally in more accidents than folks that are a little bit older. I think there are a lot of reasons. I think they are more easily distracted. They tend to be a little more social so they ride around in groups,” principal Chris Blice said.
In the first three weeks of the school year, there were four known accidents right outside school grounds.
“We’ve had more accidents in a smaller range of time when normally we don’t have this many wrecks in the beginning of school. They’re usually spread out through the year,” Student Resource Officer Herby Stubbs said.
So what caused these morning accidents? Blice thinks it is more due to the carelessness of student drivers and the sheer quantity of students arriving at once than it does the traffic pattern itself.
“The pattern is very safe. None of the accidents were necessarily related to the length of the line. It is just more people,” Blice said. “Especially at the beginning of school, they’re just a little careless.”
There was a noticeable difference once students and newcomers adjusted to the traffic pattern and school became a normal routine again.
Davis has some practical suggestions for students who want to avoid getting into a crash.
“Anything [that] can distract people and take their eyes off the road for one second [can result] in a collision. [If you are] eating [and a] French fry falls on the floor, for that brief second your attention is off the road,” said Davis. “Remain as calm as you can. Take away the distractions.”
For some of the students involved in the morning crashes, it was their first accident with another car. In some cases, it has changed the way they drive.
“I pay a lot more attention when I drive now,” said senior Justin King, who was involved in an accident on his way to school.
But Davis worries that the impact the accidents have on students will fade.
“[Trey Wallace’s death] has opened up a lot of eyes for a lot of students,” Davis said. “After a while… students may move on and unfortunately it will happen again.”
–By Frances Beroset & Jessica Clayton