Design carries texting message
<p>This public service message was designed by Nick Lovlyn, a Coeur d'Alene High School senior. Idaho State Police selected the design for use in teaching driver safety.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - A Coeur d'Alene High School student's graphic design will help Idaho State Police spread the message that texting and driving can be deadly.
Senior Nick Lovlyn's anti-texting and driving visual public service message was selected by ISP for use in its "Road Safe" program. The program is offered to the public, civic groups and the majority of driver's education classes in North Idaho.
"Texting and driving are a deadly combination and we at ISP are hopeful that Nick's graphic will help inspire others to not text and drive and hopefully save a life," wrote ISP Sgt. Tim Johnson, in a message to The Press.
Johnson said the warning about texting and driving is especially relevant in Idaho right now in light of a fatality crash being investigated by ISP in the southern part of the state.
In that incident, Johnson said the 18-year-old driver sent a text message moments before her vehicle rear-ended a slow-moving semi at 88 mph, killing the young driver.
That last text message said, "I can't discuss this matter now. Driving and Facebooking is not safe! Hahah."
Phone records show the driver sent 119 messages in 197 minutes while receiving play-by-play updates for a football game with an app, and posting 11 entries on Facebook in the final 16 minutes prior to the crash.
Lovlyn created the graphic PSA as part of an assignment for an advanced commercial photography class, said CHS photography instructor Bruce Twitchell.