Maize took a stand by inviting ‘09 graduate Austin Breitenstein and his mother Julie to speak about the dangers of texting and driving Jan. 16.

“Texting and driving is an epidemic,” Dawson Grimsley, with Davis-Moore, said.

96 people die a day from texting and driving, adding up to 672 people a week.

“After three years of therapy, he can walk, but he still struggles to speak. So I am Austin’s voice,” Julie Breitenstein said.

Breitenstein started playing soccer with AYSO at age four and continued to play through high school. He received scholarships from Friends University for academics and soccer.

On Dec. 4, 2009 at 1:52 a.m. Breitenstein was involved in a car accident. After looking off the road for four seconds to read a text message, Breitenstein overcorrected his truck after veering off the highway. Not wearing a seatbelt, Breitenstein was ejected head first through his windshield. He landed on the back of his head, cracking his skull.

“Your heart is ripped from your chest,” Julie Breitenstein said upon seeing Austin for the first time after the accident. “We spent 26 days in ICU. Austin was put on a ventilator, was comatosed for the first few days and then was put into a medically induced coma.”

To reduce the swelling in Austin’s brain the doctors performed a double craniotomy where they removed bone from both sides of his skull.

“We are a family of four and always have been; a family of four and we aren’t going to lose him,” Brooke Breitenstein, Austin’s sister and ‘06 graduate, said.

After the surgery Breitenstein had to relearn how to walk, talk, eat and swallow.

“When you make a mistake in a car, it can cost you your life or it can cost you the way that you live your life,” Grimsley said.