By JARRETT CARROLL

For the Express

BROADALBIN — Students and teachers delivered a message on Friday morning that didn’t involve any shorthand or coded words inside of a cell phone.

It was quite simply: Don’t text and drive.

The Brown family of Texas visited Fulton County and came through several area schools to share the story how of their 17-year-old daughter died from a lethal combination of speeding, texting, and not wearing a seat belt on an isolated county road.

The national organization called Remembering Alex Brown (R.A.B.) was created from the tragedy as Jeanne and Johnny Mac Brown, along with their daughter Katrina, have made it their mission to use their daughter’s story to save others.

The family has been featured on national shows such as “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Oprah,” and the “Today Show.”

Superintendent Stephen Tomlinson opened up the meeting by talking about a personal experience involving a texting accident where he saw a man being removing from the wreckage.

“It was later determined he was texting,” he said.

Fulton County Coroner Margaret Luck introduced the Brown Family, describing texting while driving, “America’s deadliest obsession.”

Jeanne started the presentation by asking how many students had driver’s licenses, during which roughly half of the students raised their hands, and she asked how many had texted while driving.

Several dozen hands remained in the air.

After showing students a video montage, Jeanne shared her daughter’s story in graphic detail, punctuating the reality of the situation.

“Our daughter Alex Brown was on her way to school Nov. 10,” she said. “But she never arrived.”

Working as technology teacher at Alex’s school, Jeanne went out and eventually found her daughter along side of a county road she had warned her not to take because it wasn’t patrolled.

What she saw next changed everything as Jeanne pulled alongside her daughter’s mangled pickup truck.

“I found Alex outside of the truck in the weeds and dirt,” she said.

Alex had been carrying on conversations with four different people on her phone, and police told Jeanne she was traveling at a rate of 73 mph when Alex lost control and was ejected from the truck.

Things went from bad to worse after she was airlifted to the hospital.

“They said, ‘We can’t get the bleeding to stop and we’ve already lost her several times on the operating table,’” Jeanne told the audience. “We looked at the surgeon and said, ‘Let her go.’”

At that point, Jeanne said, “That’s not life, that’s vegetation.”

The Brown’s were not trying to shock, but trying to show the realities of distracted driving.

“We’re not here to tell you a sad story,” she said. “You need to know the truth about texting and driving.”

She told the crowd drunken drivers are four times more likely to be in a wreck, but statistics show that someone texting is six times more likely to be in a wreck than a drunken driver.

Looking at some of the brain research associated with the cause, Jeanne said the same part of the brain is used to drive as texting.

“The problem is that particular part of the brain cannot multi-task,” she said.

Plus a lot can quickly happen when being distracted.

It takes the average person six seconds to read or respond to a text, she said. While driving 70 mph, a person can travel the length of one and a half football fields within a six second period.

As a result, 11 teenagers lose their lives every day to distracted driving.

Her husband, Johnny Mac used a different style to make his point.

“I like my crack-Berry,” he said referring to his Blackberry mobile device. “A lot of people are addicted to this little thing just as crack heads are addicted to crack.”

However, he said too often, “We get caught up in our lives,” and forget how little mistakes can many times be life threatening ones.

“You’re so involved in your social life when you drive through that red light you never see the 18-wheeler that is coming,” he said.

After softening the mood for the students, Johnny Mac took on a more serious tone. He said his daughter’s fellow classmates and the entire school was devastated when it learned of her tragic death.

“I joke around a lot and it’s a serious matter but I need to, to keep my composure because I look around at all these faces and it reminds me of Alex’s class,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if your good at driving or good at texting, they don’t mix ... You cannot do that to this class.”

Johnny Mac told B-P students he doesn’t want their parents to have to “hold your hand and watch you die.”

“Are you willing to trade your life for a few words on a phone?” he asked.

He told students there was a difference between an “accident” and what happened to his family.

“Accidents happen but my daughter didn’t have an accident, she was in a wreck and she caused it,” he said. “It makes no sense, it’s 100 percent preventable.”

Being distracted by a cell phone can only lead to one result, according to Johnny Mac.

“If you text and drive you are going to get into a wreck, “ he said. “I just hope it’s a fender bender and it wakes you up.”

Katrina was 11 when Alex died and is now 13.

“How many of you all have a younger sibling?” she asked and then asked the same question about an older sibling.

“Well, I’m jealous of you all,” Katrina told those with raised hands.

She recalled learning of Alex’s death at the Texas hospital an hour away from her school.

“My dad comes in and I smiled because I know she’s alive and she’s OK, but he takes my hand and instead of taking me to the door he leads me to a chair,” she said. “Then he told me she was gone.”

It was a complete shock to Katrina, a kind of suffering that she still carries to this day.

“That was so hard for me to take,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do or what to think, so all I did was cry.”

It never got easier, either, as Katrina recalled how the two sisters shared a bathroom.

“I knew she was supposed to be trying to kick me out of there to use the mirror ... but she wasn’t there anymore,” she said. “I know my parents are going to die someday and I know that I’m going to have to bury them, but now I’m going to have to do it by myself.”

There are companies like Phoneguard, which uses a GPS system that locks the phone’s keyboard functions and disables the texting and e-mail feature once the vehicle travels faster than 10 mph. Another such company is TextToggle, which intercepts text messages and reply’s with a pre-configured message to the sender.

Holding up Alex’s cell phone, Jeanne made a final pitch to the students.

“This phone is worthless ... but because of the attention she paid to it a life is gone that can never be replaced,” she said. “There’s is no text message, Tweet, Facebook update, or e-mail that will make you more important than you are just being you.”