South Western student designs safe driving billboard: 'no reply is worth a goodbye'

Drivers on Carlisle Pike north of Hanover will have a new reminder to stay safe on the roadways, thanks to one South Western High School student.

Sadie Bradley, a 10th-grade student at South Western High School, made the winning design, “No reply is worth a goodbye," for the 8th annual York County “No Excuses: Youth Traffic Safety Billboard Design Contest” held by the Center for Traffic Safety.

"I was very honored and flattered to win," said Bradley. "I knew I wanted to do distracted driving because it's a really big issue with teens."

According to the Center for Traffic Safety, in 2022 York County had 427 crashes attributed to distracted driving.

For Bradley, in making her design, she sought to emphasize how quickly a distraction can lead to disaster.

"It just takes a few seconds to change someone's life forever," said Bradley. "Just a simple reply to a text message is the right amount of time for something to go wrong."

"The bottom line is distracted driving crashes are 100% preventable," said Missy Sweitzer of the Center for Traffic Safety.

The location of the billboard was chosen due to the high incidence of crashes involving teen drivers in that stretch of roadway, according to the Center for Traffic Safety.

Bradley hopes her design will remind those drivers on the busy roadway to put their phones down and focus on safe driving.

Bradley's win marks the fourth time in eight years that a South Western High School student has won the countywide contest, something that Sweitzer attributes to the school district's emphasis on safe driving.

South Western School District is one of the few school districts that mandates driver's ed safety classes as a graduation requirement.

"They're invested in their students and are definitely making a difference," said Sweitzer.

As part of the win, South Western High School receives a $1,000 grant towards safe driving programs, and Bradley receives $100 for her design.

The school district is hoping to use the money from this year's win to purchase a dash camera to use during driver's ed, helping to capture examples of real world lessons to share in the classroom, said South Western High School safety education instructor Greg Sprenkle.

Seeing their students win the contest for a fourth time was a proud moment for Sprenkle and fellow South Western safety instructor Damian Poalucci, both of whom teach driver's ed.

"You hope that they're paying attention and taking it seriously, and I think they are," said Sprenkle.

"South Western School District is very fortunate to have Mr. Poalucci and Mr. Sprenkle as our safety ed teachers," said South Western assistant principal Wes Winters.

Harrison Jones is the Hanover reporter for The Evening Sun. Contact him at hjones@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Hanover Evening Sun: South Western student designs safe driving billboard: 'no reply is worth a goodbye'