Megan Reed, Campus Carrier News Editor
Sophomore Alex Sorohan is turning her grief into action.
Alex appeared in an ad for the AT&T It Can Wait campaign, which is a national effort to encourage drivers to stop texting and driving. The ad, which has already aired on MTV, is intended to raise awareness about how dangerous texting and driving can be. It was shown on Sept. 19 at the Health and Wellness Fair, where about 200 students signed a pledge promising to not text and drive. Evie McNiece, mayor of Rome, also read a proclamation stating that she “would like to instill in all Romans that no message is so urgent that it is worth diverting attention from the road.”
Alex is a peer educator, and senior Rachel Johnston, another peer educator, helped connect Berry and the It Can Wait campaign. This year, the peer educators will be focusing on raising awareness about the dangers of texting and driving.
Alex has a personal connection to the issue of texting and driving.
Alex’s brother Caleb was 18 years old and had just begun college at North Georgia College and State University. He enjoyed spending time with friends and family and would frequently come home to visit them. Caleb was close with Alex and their younger brother, Griffin, who is now 16. He dreamed of becoming an athletic trainer.
On Dec. 16, 2009, Caleb was home for winter break. He was driving to meet a friend in Athens, Ga., near his home in Rutledge. He was texting while driving, swerved into the other lane and crashed into another car head on.
He was killed instantly.
“In one second, my brother’s entire life was gone because of a text message about where he was,” Alex said. “In one second.”
Caleb was a very supportive and loving older brother, Alex said.
“He was always there for me when I needed him, he always supported me when I needed him to, and he was just the best older brother,” she said.
Caleb’s death was a shocking lesson about the dangers of texting and driving, and his family “wanted to do something with the lesson [they] learned.”
In February 2010, Alex’s grandmother, Sally Sorohan, contacted the state senator for her district, Sen. Jack Murphy. Murphy then drafted a bill that would ban texting and driving.
Alex gathered a group of her classmates from Morgan County High School and went to the State Capitol in Atlanta. There they lobbied in support of the bill, which had been named Caleb’s Law, and spoke to state senators and representatives. Alex also spoke at committee meetings and told Caleb’s story.
The bill passed through Congress, but one obstacle remained. Governor Sonny Perdue still needed to sign it, and he was hesitant to pass it because he believed it would be difficult to enforce. Drivers could still read printed materials, he said, and drivers dialing a phone number could be accused of texting while driving.
This challenge fueled the efforts of the law’s supporters. They held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol and encouraged supporters to call the governor’s office to urge him to sign the bill. Alex and one of her classmates also met with Perdue to discuss the importance of passing Caleb’s Law.
On June 4, 2010, less than six months after Caleb’s death, Perdue signed Caleb’s Law.
The law makes it illegal for all drivers in the state of Georgia to write, send or read a text message while driving. Drivers under the age of 18 are forbidden to use a cell phone for any purpose while they are driving.
Although they have fulfilled their original goal of passing Caleb’s Law, the Sorohan family still aims to end texting and driving.
“We have to educate people,” Alex said.
The family has spoken at colleges and high schools and traveled to both national and state highway safety conferences. Griffin is a member of the Governor’s Commission on Teen Driving, which advises lawmakers on changes which can be made in order to reduce teen crashes, injuries and fatalities. Georgia is the first state to have a commission dedicated to teen driving and fully comprised of teenagers.
The family also plans to lobby in support of a state law which would require all phone use while driving to be hands-free. Twelve states already have hands-free laws, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
“I don’t think it’s something easy for us to do, to talk about my brother who died,” Alex said. “But I think that our mindset is that if we can keep someone else from having to lose someone like that…it’s worth sharing the story a hundred times, as much as it hurts.”