ANNA — On Thursday, just a few days before Anna High School’s prom, a mom who lost her 18-year-old son to a crash involving an impaired driver in 2010 gave a presentation to the school’s sophomores, juniors and seniors about the dangers and consequences of driving while impaired.

Laura Seger’s son, Joey Seger, was a senior at Piqua High School when the crash occurred on Sept. 20, 2010. A woman high on compressed air struck the truck Joey was driving with his dad as a passenger head-on going almost 80 mph, just four miles from the Segers’ home. A piece of metal cut Joey’s seat belt and he was ejected and died instantly. Joey’s dad was taken by CareFlight to Miami Valley Hospital with serious injuries, and Laura said her husband might never return to work because of his injuries.

“Instead of college tours, prom, graduation, for my son’s senior year, I got to plan his funeral. I had to pick out his clothes for his last day and I had to write his obituary,” Laura said. “How do you put 18 years into two paragraphs so people know who your child was?”

Laura told the students to always wear a seat belt, whenever they are in a car and no matter how far of a distance they are traveling, because that could be the factor that saves their lives.

“If Joey’s seat belt had not been cut, he would have stayed inside the vehicle instead of being ejected and he might have survived because he would have stayed inside the car. Once you’re ejected, your chances of survival plummet,” Laura said.

She also encouraged the students to call their parents or even teachers when impaired if they need a ride rather than driving themselves.

“If you’re out doing things you shouldn’t be doing — you’ve gone out and had a drink, took a pill, whatever — do not compound that mistake by getting behind the wheel, because guys, this is all I have left are memories of Joey in pictures,” Laura said with a framed picture of Joey at her side and pictures of Joey scrolling on a screen in the background.

It took seven weeks for the toxicology report to conclude the woman who caused the crash was impaired, then she only spent one hour in a holding cell before being released on bond.

“When they let her go home from jail that day, I hated her, because she got to go home and hug all of her children and her husband. She got to go back home to a world that was going to be the same until court,” Laura said. “But every day when I go home, I pass the crash site — we put a cross up where Joey’s body landed — and this morning when I drove here I passed the crash site, and I blew Joey a kiss and told him that I loved him, and when I come home from work tonight, I’ll blow Joey a kiss and tell him goodnight. I go home to a world that will never be the same, and there’s nothing that I can do about it except talk to you guys.”

On Dec. 21, 2010, the woman died from a drug overdose, leaving behind six children and her husband. Laura went to the woman’s house the same day with money for Christmas so her children could still have a Christmas. On that day, she forgave the woman.

To conclude, Laura reiterated wearing seat belts and not driving impaired, as well as slowing down and not texting while driving.

“This message is so important, because we only get one shot at this life, and I want you guys to live the best life possible,” Laura said.