Miss Illinois 2011, Hannah Smith, visited Huntley High School on Wednesday to speak with the sophomores on distracted driving. Smith started out by telling the students her age, when she graduated, and that she is a Huntley graduate.

“I always start by telling the students that I just graduated in 2009. I’m not that much older than them, “said Smith. ”I know that sometimes students can feel, and as a student myself I know, that sometimes when adult figures come in, they may think ‘Oh, another teacher teaching us what to do, but I really want them to know that I’m not here as an authoritative figure.”

Her presentation certainly seemed to have an impact. She started out with some shocking statistics. Seven-thousand teens are killed in distracted driving collisions a year. Distracted driving collisions are the number one killer of teen drivers. The first story she shared was on a family she met as Miss Illinois, the Arends family. Greg Arends was driving with his brother Steve when he lost control of the car, overcorrected, and wrapped it around a utility pole. Greg was killed instantly, and Steve spent six months in a coma. When he came out of the coma, he was mentally impaired, causing him to walk with a limp and speak slowly. His mentality will never go beyond that of a 17-year-old boy.

“You never think accidents as you’re going to be mentally impaired for the rest of your life,” said sophomore Casey Wilder. “It’s sort of just going to happen to you, and you’ll be fine, and you can live the rest of your life, but that wasn’t what happened to the one brother.”

Her next story was more personal, about her friend, Ryan, who was killed pulling out of a parking lot because he was texting. She told students how there are no words to describe how she was feeling when she saw his memorial, saw the phone. People have always said that you never know what you have until it’s gone, and this story, along with that of the Arends family, was a true testament to that saying.

“I’m here as someone who has been through different experiences, as a peer telling [the students] my experiences and hoping that will have an impact,” said Smith.