LA CROSSE, WI (WXOW)—More than 100,000 times each year someone is hurt in a car crash because the driver was texting.
Logan High School students got a wake up call today watching the AT&T documentary "The Last Text." (Click here to view the full documentary.)
"Next thing I look up and see a bicyclist crash into the windshield," "The Last Text" Documentary character said.
"Yeah that would be a lot to take in, crazy, horrible feeling," Gabrielle Mannion, Logan High School Junior said.
Students got to see what can happen if you're texting and driving.
"I think that video touched a lot of people how dangerous it could be," Mannion said.
If the video wasn't enough evidence, the texting and driving simulator showed students what distracted driving is really like.
"I think a lot of people take it for granted because they haven't gotten into an accident or something personally happened to them," Mannion said. "But I think after today people will be a lot more careful with it."
Whether you're driving the simulator or behind an actual wheel it's too easy to get distracted while you're texting and driving, so Wisconsin State Patrol says just put your cell phone down.
"Driving in and of itself takes a person's full concentration," Major Sandra Huxtable, Wisconsin State Patrol said. "But, what happens is they are so used to texting and driving that for them they think they can split those two and you just can't."
Major Huxtable said inexperienced drivers need to concentrate on driving even harder.
After raising two children she knows first hand that inexperience could lead to crashes.
"I can tell you that it stops your heart when you get that call that a family member or a close friend was involved in a car crash it just really takes everything right out of you," Huxtable said.
Whether it was the speakers, simulator or movie.
"I sent one stupid meaningless text and killed a man," "The Last Text" Documentary character said.
Students got the message: no text is worth your life.
"After today people will be a lot more careful with it," Mannion said.
Texting and driving is already illegal in Wisconsin.
But, because distracted driving is such a problem for inexperienced drivers, beginning on November 1st a person with a learners permit or provisional license won't be able to talk on their phone or use a hands free devise while they're driving.
