Mother tries to reach teens about dangers of distracted driving

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A Fort Wayne mother who lost her son in a car accident while he was texting and driving said she does not see the problem getting better in Indiana.

Diveeta Thompson started the STOP Texting and Driving Distracted , or STANDD, campaign in February of 2009. Thompson lost her son, Rodney, in October of 2008 after he had a car accident while responding or reading a text message.

Texting while driving is illegal in Indiana, but drivers still make the decision to engage on a regular basis.

"Anything that could take your eyes off the road," Thompson said. "I think the awareness needs to increase in order to offset the increases in the percentages of fatalities."

A new study from the Governors Highway Safety Association shows that Indiana is tied with Tennessee as the nation's leader for traffic deaths of 16 and 17-year-olds in the first six months of 2012. In the first six months of 2011, Indiana had three traffic deaths of teens in this age range in comparison to last year where there were 16 deaths.

Thompson spoke to girls Saturday afternoon at the second annual Girls Rock event at the old Harding High School. She shared her story of losing her son Rodney in hopes of being able to reach out to the young women.

"Texting is like they're getting in trouble at school with it, at home, sometimes it's a distraction in every arena of their life, and so what we thought, bring somebody in that could grab them," Denita Washington, the co-director of Girls Rock, said.

Almost all of the girls in the room, including some parents, said her speech made them want to make a change. They all signed a pledge saying they would not drive distracted anymore.