At its December 20 meeting, Hardy Telecommunications’ Youth Advisory Board discussed the dangers of texting while driving and watched a documentary detailing four tragedies that occurred because of the problem.
“Distracted driving is a problem that affects everyone,” said Hardy Marketing and Human Resource Director Derek Barr. “If you cause an accident through distracted driving, you can affect far more people than yourself and your family. You’re potentially hurting many other people and their families.”
Derek showed the Youth Board students a documentary titled “From One Second to the Next.” Famed documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog directed the film as part of an AT&T campaign to educate people about the dangers of texting and driving. All four of the major wireless carriers – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile – joined together in the presentation.
The film tells four true stories of accidents that resulted from texting while driving. Victims, their families, and the drivers responsible describe how their lives have been forever altered by the accidents.
Several Youth Board members said they knew people who texted and drove. When Derek asked them whether they wear seatbelts when driving, all of the students answered that they did for safety reasons. Derek said that they shouldn’t text and drive for the same reasons.
“This film was made because texting while driving is such a big problem,” he said. “If there is anything that you take from any of our meetings, not to text while driving is the one thing that I hope you’ll remember.”
The students also saw a demonstration of some of the enhanced calling features available with Hardy’s new central office switch. Hardy’s “Find Me, Follow Me” feature lets people make sure that they’re always available for telephone calls because it works with any phone number.
“With ‘Find Me, Follow Me,’ you can set up your telephone line so that it will ring several different numbers if you’re not available,” Derek said. “The call can ring through to your home phone, then to your work phone, then to your mobile phone, in any order you wish, regardless of whether those are Hardy phone numbers. It can ring all three at the same time. You can even set up how long it rings each number before going to the next one.”
Hardy formed its Youth Advisory Board in 2007 to educate students about Hardy Telecommunications and the telecommunications industry, and for the students to share their ideas and thoughts about technology important to them. The group is comprised of students from East Hardy and Moorefield high schools.
This year’s Youth Advisory Board members are Corey Whetzel, East Hardy junior; Ben Shirk, Moorefield junior; Rachel Wilson, East Hardy sophomore; Mitchell Martin, Moorefield sophomore; Kaitlin Kerr, East Hardy freshman; and Brock Dolly, Moorefield freshman.