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A text message warning Weatherly students create teen driving video

Rob has chosen the perfect spot for his proposal, a scenic footbridge, and the gorgeous engagement ring is burning a hole in his pocket as he drives to pick up his girlfriend.

His best friend Trent knows that Rob is planning to propose that day, and he can't wait to find out what she answers. Trent sends Rob a quick text, and Rob reaches for his phone, just for a second.Rob never makes it to his girlfriend's house, because in that split second that takes his attention from the road, he veers across the center line and gets into a crash.That's the basic plot line of an anti-texting video created by two Weatherly High School sophomores, Trent Dempsey and Shelby Berger. Through the encouragement of their computer science teacher Katie Leach, they created the video and entered it in a national contest, the Toyota Teen Driver Video Challenge. Entrants had to create a 60- to 90-second video, suitable for use as a TV-ready public service announcement.The finalist videos can be viewed and voted on now through April 30 at

www.toyotateendriver.com/teens/video-challenge.Although both have taken driver's education at the school, neither has a driver's license. But that didn't stop them from wanting to spread the word about the dangers of texting while driving."When people text they tell themselves that they're not looking away from the road, that they're only looking down for a second," Berger said. "But all it takes is a second for something bad to happen."Both are very skilled in computer and video work. Dempsey recently landed a first place in regionals in the Pennsylvania High School Computer Fair for logo design. His design was chosen as the logo for the 2015 computer fair contest, and as a regional winner he's a finalist in the state competition.Berger was awarded second place in the same competition in the video category for an anti-bullying video she developed with fellow student Morgan Mengle. She's also helped athletes at the school put together video clips to send to prospective coaches at the college level.Their skills and perseverance are amazing considering the equipment they used to make the video just a Nikon coolpix camera, point-and-shoot, using the video clip feature."We had to download the pieces of video into one of the newer computer programs," Dempsey said. "It took us many tries to get it downloaded, and we had to go through it and fix and add as we went along."Their finished video features a "second chance" where the clip runs backward and the driver makes the right decision, ignoring his cellphone notification of a new text. Instead of having an accident, he takes his girlfriend to the scenic footbridge and gets down on bended knee.Weatherly High School Principal Stu Tripler said he's proud of the video that the two produced."They did a great job," Tripler said. "They really showed initiative on this project and on other projects they have done for the school."

LISA PRICE/TIMES NEWS Weatherly High School sophomores Trent Dempsey and Shelby Berger developed and entered a video in the national Toyota Teen Drivers Video Challenge. With them is Weatherly High School Principal Stu Tripler.