‘Ghosted’ teens offer lessons

Danger, be it real or imagined, pervaded the impending weekend as Amherst County High School students glanced out of curiosity, sometimes chuckling but nonetheless paying attention to the words on the black T-shirts that some of their classmates wore.

The T-shirts read, in large white letters, “alcohol,” “seat belt” and “texting,” the stated reasons why each student wearing one had been “ghosted.”

It was the latest effort by the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office to make the point, not with a sense of urgency as much as with consistency.

The sheriff’s office routinely targets underage drinking, drug use and dangerous behavior in an effort to prevent driving accidents.

Friday’s “ghost out” preceded a potentially hazardous Saturday: The high school’s ring dance was Saturday night, it also was Halloween, daylight savings time was to end and provide an extra nighttime hour, and the weather forecast called for rain.

Hence the need for the “ghost out” program, sponsored by the sheriff’s office with free T-shirts provided by Youth of Virginia Speak Out About Traffic Safety, a Roanoke-based nonprofit organization that focuses on teen driver safety.

On Friday, the deputies and two students who participate in Yovaso, Jacob Massie, 14, a freshman, and Jaime Fitzgerald, 17, a senior and co-president of the local Yovaso chapter, approached various classes and summoned students outside.

“Every 12 minutes, someone dies in an accident,” said Amherst sheriff’s Deputy Lou Goldman. “Among ages 14 to 20, it’s the leading cause of death.”

Thus, they summoned a student from a class every 12 minutes.

They went to the band room and summoned Lauren Jones, 16, a senior who plays xylophone and drums and hopes to attend Wake Forest University to study biology and eventually become a veterinarian.

She also has a driver’s license and typically drives her mothers’ Nissan Sentra.

The Yovaso team gave her a “seat belt” T-shirt, and Deputy sJ.C. Ferguson entered the band room and told her fellow students the scenario: Lauren had been in an accident, had not been wearing a seat belt and had been killed instantly. When a student put on one of the black T-shirts, they were asked to refrain from talking to fellow students for the rest of the day, except to explain the accident scenario, Ferguson said.

“This is going to be so sad,” Lauren said before re-entering the classroom.

Next, the team went to an English class and summoned Malissa Morris, 15, a sophomore, who aspires to study nursing at Georgetown University.

The team gave her a “seat belt” T-shirt and informed her that she had run off the road, overcorrected and that her vehicle rolled over, ejecting her. Ferguson made the announcement to the class.

Next, the team was off to a history class, where Ashley Tomlin, 16, a junior who drives a 1999 Ford Taurus, was given an “alcohol” T-shirt.

The scenario for Ashley, who hopes to attend Virginia Commonwealth University or Sweet Briar College to study studio design, art or photography, was that she had left school early, drank alcohol and swerved into another vehicle on the U.S. 29 bypass. She was “killed” instantly.

The program concluded with an assembly in which the students talked about safety, which is an important topic for Virginia’s teen drivers.

Drivers between ages 15 and 20 account for less than seven percent of America’s licensed drivers but are responsible for more than 20 percent of the nation’s annual traffic fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Locally, drivers between 16 and 19 account for only 4 percent of licensed drivers in the Commonwealth, but are responsible for 11 percent of Virginia’s crashes, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

In Virginia, 126 teenagers died in crashes in 2008, said Mary King, program administrator for Yovaso, with primary causes such as speeding and inattention. Under Virginia law, teenagers under 18 cannot text, talk or use a hand-held device while driving, she said.

“They tend to run off the road,” she said, resulting in panic or overcorrecting, which leads to the driver striking an object, rolling over or crossing the center line and striking another vehicle head-on.

In teen deaths last year, more than 60 percent were not wearing a seat belt, which is below the compliance level statewide among all drivers, which ranges between 70 percent and 80 percent, King said.