Kids Learn about Road Safety, Dangers of Texting while Driving

Mutual of Enumclaw hosted it's annual Kids at Work Day Thursday during which several employees brought their children to show them around and teach them about what they do.

The day's activities including touring the building, getting a lesson on insurance policies and the process of having one set up from start to finish and seeing firsthand why texting while driving is not a good idea.

David Rice-Reynolds, the material damage program manager at Mutual of Enumclaw said in the past, the safe driving lesson revolved around issues like drink driving. However, texting has become a cause for concern of late and Rice-Reynolds was even able to provide an actual car damaged in what was believed to have been an accident caused by texting, to show the kids why it's best to put the phone down behind the wheel.

The car was later used by Enumclaw/Fire District 28 firefighters to demonstrate an extraction procedure in a simulated serious accident. It appeared that was the highlight for many of the young visitors including Josh Murdock, 13, whose father Jason works in Mutual of Enumclaw's marketing department. 

Asked if his visit influenced him in deciding what career he wanted to pursue for himself, Josh said he'd like to have a successful career in sports -- likely baseball. But "seeing what he [dad, Jason] does was cool. Marketing looks cool too."

Editor's Note: The accompanying video is a truncated version of the entire extraction proces as demonstrated by local firefighters.