Bodies and broken street signs littered the Hays Middle School parking lot Wednesday afternoon.
The mayhem was part of W8T 2 TXT, a texting and driving awareness program for 8th graders organized by USD 489 Drivers Education instructor Bruce Rupp.
The “bodies”were pillows, and the signs, including “Kangaroo Crossing,” were atop bright orange traffic cones.
“It was hard,” said participant Peyton Augustine. “I drove through a stop sign and ran over one of the body pillows.” Classmate Dylan Scheibler agrees. “It’s really hard to know where you are going if you’re not paying attention to the road.”
The soon-to-be and young restricted drivers experienced first-hand the dangers of texting and driving, as they maneuvered golf carts through an obstacle course while also sending pretend texts to a friend.
The W8T 2 TXT program started inside the HMS gymnasium where students watched a video featuring real stories of distracted driver fatalities, including K-State student Ashley Umscheid who died in 2009 while driving and texting her sister.
The Kansas Highway Patrol also brought in a crash simulator so students could feel the impact of a vehicle crash at only 5 miles per hour.
STORY BY EAGLE LOCAL NEWS INTERN ANNIE SANDMEIER