Family, classmates gather at memorial for Stanley teen killed in wreck

From the The Gaston Gazette:

STANLEY — Nothing that’s ever flashed across a cell phone screen is worth her granddaughter’s life, Helen Anderson says, staring at smudges of paint on a gouged telephone pole.

Her 16-year-old “baby girl,” East Gaston High School junior Brittany Johnson, was likely distracted by text messages when her car ran off the road, overturned in a ditch and slid on its side to the wooden pole in front of a home on Mauney Road outside Stanley Sunday evening. Anderson wants to warn teenagers that digital distractions can be deadly.

“I hope they do learn a lesson and don’t put their families through what we’re going through right now,” Anderson said. “Don’t text and drive — it’s not that important. Whatever they have to say can wait 10 minutes until they stop.”

Johnson was driving toward Stanley in a 1997 Chevrolet Lumina when she lost control of the car. State troopers compared phone records with the time of impact and determined that she had received two text messages, sent one text and her phone had received an incoming call within one minute of the wreck.

“She wasn’t actually in the act of texting,” when her car ran off the road, said Sgt. John Brodhage of the N.C. Highway Patrol. “She had been texting while driving.”

Johnson’s car struck a ditch and flipped on its side 0.37 seconds after veering into the grass, according to Highway Patrol crash data. Brodhage said avoiding the spin was impossible.

“It was beyond human reaction time,” he said. “She couldn’t even react before she hit the ditch. It takes less than half a second to lose your life being distracted, and here’s the proof. Distracted driving is just as deadly as drunk driving.”

Trooper F.E. Odell said excessive speed isn’t believed to be a factor in the wreck. The posted speed limit on that stretch of Mauney Road is 35 mph.

On Monday afternoon, Anderson visited the site where her granddaughter was killed. Relatives, friends and classmates have built a makeshift memorial at the base of the telephone pole, with fresh flowers, a large teddy bear and a sign proclaiming that Johnson is loved and missed.

“She was my first grandchild,” Anderson said. “She was fun-loving. She was spirited and she liked to poke the hornet’s nest, but she was loving.”

Johnson planned to attend college and study for a career in the medical field, her grandmother said.

“She was a brilliant kid, an honor student,” said Anderson. “She got her As without even studying.”

Nearly two-dozen of Johnson’s classmates from East Gaston High visited the crash site memorial Monday afternoon. They stood in reverent silence as her boyfriend pinned a recent picture of the smiling teen to the telephone pole.

“Nobody ever disliked her,” said Cara Hardy, an East Gaston junior. “She was friends with everybody. She was an outgoing person.”

Added junior Wednesday Watkins: “She kept a smile on her face, and she didn’t let what people say bother her. I just miss her. She’s just the last person you would expect to be gone.”

The First Baptist Church of Stanley held a memorial service for Johnson on Monday evening. Dozens of relatives, friends and classmates packed the pews to pay their respects.

Stanley resident Elena Poteat was a first-grade teacher's assistant at Pinewood Elementary when she first met Johnson. Poteat's daughter and Johnson have been friends since first grade.

“She was a very beautiful and smart child,” Poteat said. “Our family's heart is broken. Brittany was an honors student at East Gaston, she had an outgoing personality and was loved by all.”

Poteat said Johnson was driving to see her boyfriend when she lost control of her car.

“Brittany was a joy to know and we, as well as all her friends at East Gaston, will miss her,” Poteat said. “It doesn't seem real that she is gone.”

After pleading with teens and young adults to eliminate electronic distractions while driving, Anderson directed a bit of advice to parents and grandparents: Give your young ones a tight squeeze.

“Hug them hard,” she said, “because you never know if they’re not coming back.”