AUBURN - Motor vehicles are not just tools for transportation or objects to show off; they are also weapons.

After losing his son Timothy in a fatal car accident in 2006, Auburn police officer Brian Hutchings felt compelled to talk to Auburn High School health class students last year. A year later he felt no different.

“When someone is taken out of your family - just think - what would you do without your brother or your sister?” he asked about 15 students in Amy Cox's health class. “What would you do if they weren't in the picture anymore? It'll be kind of hard to function.”

Hutchings and school resource officers James Slayton and Paul Martin, all with the Auburn Police Department, as well as Wendy Hutchings, Brian's wife and Timothy's mother, spoke to several health classes on Wednesday about driving a car, and what bad decisions on the road could mean for your families, the school and the community.

“It's a privilege in New York state to get a driver's license,” Hutchings said. “It's not like you're 16 years old and New York state has to give you a driver's license. It's a privilege, and if you don't follow the rules, the privilege is taken away from you.”

In a span of just more than a year, several area car accidents involving young drivers have resulted in tragedy. On Sept. 2, 2006, Timothy died of massive head trauma sustained in an accident in the front yard of 2850 Sand Beach Road in Fleming. He was found four hours later in the vehicle.

A felony case is now pending against the driver, Nicholas Raymond, 19, of 6206 West Lake Road, Auburn.

In an accident that occurred two weeks later, Ryan Walker, 19, of Auburn, was killed in a high-speed crash on Benham Road in Aurelius Sept. 16. Driver James Darby also died.

Just a few months ago Auburn was affected by yet another tragedy.

On Oct. 28, Sarah E. Smith, a 16-year-old Auburn High School student, was killed when the car she was riding in collided with a bus on Route 20 in Sennett.

Hutchings, Walker and Smith are remembered in the Gone4Ever traveling exhibit that shows five victims of three fatal automobile crashes between 2004 and 2005. The exhibit will be shown at Auburn High School through Friday.

“We don't want your parents to experience (losing a child),” said Martin. “We don't want your parents to get invited here a couple of years from now and speak to others because God-forbid something were ever to happen to you guys. We need you to start thinking, to slow down, get below the speed limit, take your time, because in an instant a tragedy like this could happen.

“And you have no idea how many people it affects,” he continued. “It affects the family, the community, the school. Everybody is affected by the decisions you make.”

But making good decisions is not just about driving safely. It's also about helping others when they are in need by calling law enforcement in emergencies.

By a show of hands, Slayton asked how many students had cell phones.

All of the students had cell phones.

“You need to use them when there's a tragedy, when there is something going on,” Slayton said. “What we're finding all too often now in law enforcement is when a tragedy happens there are people around - the majority of them have cell phones - and no one makes a phone call to say that something happened. You have your phones all of the time, and when a tragedy happens and something of a serious nature happens, you've got to use them.

“You need to step up. That's your conscience and you'll have to live with that for the rest of your life - ‘I could have made a phone call but I didn't. What if I made a phone call in a timely manner? I might have saved someone's life.'”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at alyssa.sunkin@lee.net or 253-5311 ext. 239