Texting while driving no LOL matter

DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas (KXAN) - Texting while driving is not worth your life.

That is the message Jeanne and Johnny Brown, who lost their teenage daughter Alex in 2009, wanted to convey to students at Dripping Springs High School on Wednesday morning.

"Alex made choices and those choices cost her her life," said Jeanne, Alex's mom, while choking back tears.

Alex Brown , 17, died in a rollover accident on her way to school.  She was texting and driving at the time.

The Browns, who are from Wellman, Texas, are trying to raise awareness about the dangers of driving while behind the wheel. They're also promoting a product called " Get Home Safe ." The device can be downloaded online for $99 and plugged into your vehicle's on-board diagnostic system. 

Once it is programmed to recognize a cell phone, if the car is moving, it will block the phone from receiving text messages.

If the device is tampered with, a message is sent to parents alerting them.

"The last thing I could do for my daughter was pick out her headstone," Brown told students.

Her emotional speech did not fall on deaf ears.

"It is sad," said Aspen, a senior who plans to hit the breaks on texting behind the wheel.  "I don't want my mom to plan my funeral. I am not going to text and drive anymore."

Aspen and a few of her friends, who admitted to texting while behind the wheel in the past, also signed a pledge to no longer do it. The pledge was handed out during the assembly.

If the emotional speech by the Browns was not enough, they brought along Alex's pickup truck to drive home their point. Its windshield is caved in and cracked, and the tires are flat.

"It is hard for me to see the truck when we are driving, and I look in the rearview mirror," Brown explained.

Students were given permission to view the car in the school's parking lot before returning to class.

Wednesday's lesson is something students won't likely learn while at their desks. Driver's education is an elective class at the high school, and the curriculum doesn't include a section on the dangers of texting and driving.

"We haven't yet talked about it, but after this assembly we are going to reach out to parents to see what we can do," said DSHS Principal Kim Cousins.

Brown said her goal isn't to have schools change their curriculums. Instead, she is targeting Texas lawmakers and urging them to push stronger anti-texting legislation.

Some cities, including Austin, have passed bans on texting and driving.

Until a more widespread ban is in place, the Browns are crisscrossing Texas giving presentations and are hauling Alex's wrecked truck to each place. Their next stop is Buda and then they are moving on to Dallas.

Last year, they even took their message to the national stage and appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show .