Over the past few months, North Stonington has been seeing more than its fair share of car accidents - accidents involving students at Wheeler High School.

Some quick figures: four students have had major accidents since 2013, leaving behind four totaled vehicles. Two of those accidents have occurred since the start of the 2014/2015 school year. In addition, there have been numerous minor accidents; just bumps and scrapes. Minor car accidents are not the problem.

Life-threatening car crashes caused by distracted driving are the real problem. Thankfully, no one has been seriously injured in any of the accidents.

In November, Resident State Trooper David Abely came into Wheeler to address the senior class, who are predominantly the students driving. During the brief 20-minute meeting, he and school Principal Kristin St. Germain stressed the importance of driving safely and making smart choices behind the wheel.

St. Germain stated that she and Vice Principal Ryan Chaney dreaded coming to school on Monday mornings out of fear that one of their students could have been in a serious accident over the weekend.

In a further attempt to get the message of safe driving across, Wheeler brought in an international drivers' education program on Dec. 2. The program was conducted with the goal to educate students on the dangers of texting while driving. As a part of the simulation, students were encouraged to participate in a distracted driving simulator.

Within the computer-simulated driving scenario, students were required to drive a car at the posted speed limit, steering with an arcade wheel. After the students had thirty seconds to adjust to the simulator, they were handed a cell phone that asked questions, prompting the students to type back a reply. All of the drivers crashed within a few seconds to several minutes.

Teens can be warned incessantly, and can even play games designed to warn them against texting while driving, yet the dangerous driving patterns continue.

What will it take for young adults to realize that distracted driving habits are potentially lethal to themselves and anyone else on the road?

For now, we can just hope that there are no more car accidents among the students at Wheeler and all other schools in this region.

THIS IS THE OPINION OF GABRIELLE BLISS, A SENIOR AT WHEELER HIGH SCHOOL IN NORTH STONINGTON. IT IS THE SECOND ESSAY SHE HAS WRITTEN AS PART OF HER SENIOR PROJECT.