GREENWOOD, Ind. (WTHR) A Greenwood couple wants to toughen laws on distracted driving after their 9-year-old son was killed in a crash caused by a distracted driver. They don't want anyone else to experience that grief and pain. So, they are pleading with people to put the phone down when they are driving. It is an effort they refer to as "Living for Logan."
Logan Scherer was a boy who loved the beach, playing piano and going to Walt Disney World. He brought joy to his family. But the Scherers no longer have their son because of a crash on a Florida interstate on September 15, 2016. The Scherers say their SUV was struck by a driver who was distracted on the phone going more than 90 mph.
"We were complete sitting ducks," said Logan's mother, Brooke Scherer. "Our car was an accordion between the car behind us and the car in front of us. It was literally smashed. We all should have died that day. All of us should have died with Logan."
"There was no braking. There was no attempt to swerve," said Logan's father Jordan, Scherer. "He was just that distracted."
"It's unbelievable how the man who killed our son walked away without any scratches as well," said Brooke.
Logan was killed in the crash. Now, his parents are on a mission to keep other drivers from becoming distracted behind the wheel.
"Anything that takes your eyes off the road and your hands off the wheel is incredibly dangerous. If we survived this, then what are we going to do with it? We can't just let it be for nothing," said Brooke. "We want to educate, create and encourage change. We want people to look at our story and say, they were just regular people and this happened to them or the guy who hit us. He was just a regular person who happened to make a bunch of mistakes. And look what he did. He took the life of a 9 year-old boy and he wrecked the life of an immediate family."
The Scherers understand the temptation to be on the phone while driving.
"We spent time on the roads on our phones with kids in the backseat. Logan would say, 'mom, what are you doing?' And then Mallory would mock him and say, 'mom, what are you doing," said Brooke.
"We don't want to come across as holier than thou. We used to do this and now we know the repercussions of it," said Jordan Scherer.
"What people don't realize is it takes only a split second to change many lives forever. And, is that text worth it? Is the phone call worth it?" said Brooke Scherer.
In Indiana, there is a distracted driving law on the books.
"It's law as of 2011 bans texting and emailing. Everything else is deemed acceptable," said Brooke. "What about the social media? The snapchatting. The watching movies. The Facetime. It's grandparents. It's teenagers. It's parents. It's everybody doing it."
The Scherers want Indiana and other states to toughen laws requiring people to use a hands free feature while driving. Until that happens, the Scherer family is pleading for people to make changes in their habits behind the wheel. If you use GPS, set it before you start driving. Put your phone out of reach. Put it in the backseat. Put it in the glove compartment. Or just turn it off.
"We know life is fleeting. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed," said Brooke.
That's why the Scherers are "Living For Logan" and remembering the young boy who found happiness in so many things.
"I'm glad that we got the time that we had with him. I'll always be sad that there isn't more time with him. But we're absolutely blessed with the nine years we had with him," said Jordan.
Their mission is clear. Keep drivers from becoming distracted and prevent more tragedies from taking place on the roads.
"If we let his death define us as humans and do nothing with our survival and our story, then his death is in vain," Brooke said. "We won't stop until we see the change."
"That's his legacy. Living for Logan is the mission he's given us," Jordan said.
The Scherers are organizing an event called "Logan's Drive" from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on September 15, 2018 at Rascal's Fun Zone in Whiteland, Indiana. Tickets are available at the Facebook page Living for Logan and Logans Drive 2018.