Johnston's targeted programs reduce teen traffic fatalities

In high schools across Johnston County, students now spread the message about safe driving under the Johnston County Teen Drivers program. Ten students from each school are selected to educate classmates about staying safe on the road.

"Teens are more likely to listen to the kids that they hang out with instead of their parents or other adults," Teen Drivers participant Matt Cherry said Tuesday.

They put up signs in the halls to show how far someone can travel when they take their eyes off the road for just a second.

"You go 88 feet in one second going 55 mph in a car," Cherry said.

Teen traffic fatalities are more than just numbers at West Johnston High School in Benson, where the names of friends and classmates and the years in which they died are on a memory bench outside of the school.

Yvette Davis, a teacher at West Johnston High, knows all too well the dangers of teens behind the wheel. Her 13-year-daughter, Alyssa Heider, was riding with a friend who ran a stop sign and collided with a pickup in August 2006.

"I will never forget that doctor's expression when she looked me in the eye and said, 'If we can't get the swelling down (in her brain), she will die,'" Davis said. "She died two days before her 14th birthday."

A 16-year-old passenger in the car also died. The 16-year-old driver, who survived, wasn't supposed to have young passengers drivers in her car.

"I feel as if parents everywhere need to know that they're the keeper of the keys," she said. "They do have the power to say, 'No, you will not transport other kids.'"

Last year, there was only one traffic-related fatality involving a teen in Johnston County.