Some hometown students have an urgent message for classmates: stay safe behind the wheel.
More than a dozen teenagers in Virginia have died in car accidents since the beginning of January, including four from our region. On Monday, a Bedford County school used one of those deadly accidents to drive home an important point.
"It was January sixth of this year," said Jefferson Forest High School senior Kendall Lee, sharing a difficult story.
"I don't want it to happen to anyone else, and I don't want them to go through the pain that I've gone through," Lee said.
Lee was friends with Breanna Boyd and Stacia Anderson, two Lynchburg girls who died in a car accident last month. On the night of the crash, Lee was invited to ride with Boyd and Anderson, but chose not to.
"I wish I had been in the car," Lee said. "I could have told them to slow down and it could have avoided (the accident)."
He believes that close call happened for a reason.
"So I could learn from it, and help other people not make the mistake that they made," Lee said.
Lee is now part of a group at Jefferson Forest High School called "Youth of Virginia Speak Out" (YOVASO).
This month they're urging classmates to be safe, through a program called "Buckle Up, Drive Sober."
"It's almost as if teenagers learn their lessons through tragedies, and we're trying to make it so they will learn through a presentation like this," said Bryan Miller, president of the YOVASO chapter at Jefferson Forest.
On Monday, students heard personal accounts of driving tragedies, and signed a pledge to practice safety on the road.
"The more that we inform the kids and the more that it's informed by their own peers, the more they tend to listen," said Corporal Ryan Hilbish, a school resource officer at Jefferson Forest.
Monday's presentation targeted freshmen and sophomores at Jefferson Forest. YOVASO wants to teach them good driving habits, before they get behind the wheel.
"You can tell by their facial expressions that they get it," Miller said "I don't know if it scares them, but it's kind of like an eye opener."
Lee's eyes are wide open. Losing his friends has changed everything about the way he drives, and he wants others to "think of their consequences, and not do stupid things that could potentially put them in the hospital."
Or take their lives, like so many accidents have this year.
