On Friday, March 31, Jacy and Steve Good, advocates for cell phone free roads came to McLean to remind students about the danger of phone usage while driving, a prominent issue among adolescents. At a time where many underclass students are getting their licenses, and upperclassmen are going onto their second and even third years of having their licenses, a visit from the two served as a good reminder to students that phone usage behind the wheel be detrimental.

The assembly was planned last minute by Principal Reilly. She was able to find out that the couple was in town, and quickly gave them a call to see if they would be able to stop by McLean High School. Fortunately, they accepted and gave an important speech that students needed to hear.

Jacy and Steve began by introducing themselves and talked about their story of how they met and eventually fell in love. They met in college and had their sights on a big future together with a family and jobs they would love. According to Jacy, everything was going great, as their worries were at a minimum and they saw each other walking into the sunset together.

The future they yearned for was just around the block, until one day after Jacy’s graduation, Jacy got into a car crash. It occurred in a T-intersection. Unfortunately, Jacy was not the only one affected by the crash; her father was in the driver’s seat and her mother in the passenger seat.

Across the intersection sat a large truck and in the lane perpendicular to their’s, was a car with a driver on his phone. Unaware of what was going on around him, the driver on his phone began his left turn before his light was green. All in a matter of seconds, the truck was forced to swerve to avoid hitting the car turning left and consequently hit the car Jacy and her family was in.

Before she knew it, Jacy’s parents were gone, and by some miracle, Jacy came out of the accident with a beating heart. She suffered serious injuries, including broken bones and minor brain damage. For the next two months, Jacy spent her time in a hospital learning how to read, walk, and talk, again.

“Her story was very sad, I just couldn’t believe what she had to go through just because of somebody else being reckless,”
senior Hugh Curran said.

Jacy and Steve Good had no plans of going around the country sharing their story with students. They never thought they would be advocates for cell phone free roads. Though, they have used what they have been through to make the roads and communities safer.

Their story moved many students. It was a powerful one that carried a message that students needed to hear. It served as proof that phone usage while driving is a part of reality and has changed the course of many peoples’ lives.

“It was a shame to see someone who seemed like life was going well for them, have to end up on the wrong end of a stupid, situation,” junior Tommy Schilder said. “It made me realize that people put others lives at risk as well when they aren’t committed to concentrating while driving.”