Nassau urges teen road safety

A wrecked car being opened with the Jaws of Life was Wednesday's highlight as Nassau County kicked off a road safety campaign aimed at youths.

"Awesome and frightening," Sean Wright, 17, said of the demonstration at Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville.

Nassau acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter told more than 150 students at the event that "motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury and death among teenagers, and the risk is higher among 16- to 19-year-olds than any other age group."

Wright, a senior from Plainview, said, "Those of us who saw and heard this will hardly not be able to think about this happening to us."

Caroline Claude, 17, a senior from East Meadow, called the demonstration "daunting and traumatic."

Three officers from the department's emergency service unit used the hydraulic device to pull the car door off in about eight minutes.

The demonstration helped kick off the United Nation's Decade of Action for Road Safety campaign, which Krumpter says is going on nationwide.