Students mourn friend apparently killed by a texting driver

VERNAL, Utah (ABC 4 News) – Vernal Junior High School Students returned to class Tuesday shocked and saddened Tommy Clark is gone.

He was hit Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. by 28-year-old Jeffery Bascom who later told police he veered his Dodge truck off the road at 500 West 1300 South because he was texting and driving.

Principal Kathy Hawkins shared kind thoughts about Tommy over the intercom and shared a wish the last words each student shared with him were kind.

Some students were crying softly in the hallways as students walked quietly past each other in the morning. About 30 students met with grief counselors.

“There was a lot of crying--- sadness--- everybody misses him,” said student Kyla Webb.

Friends and family in Vernal are talking about texting and driving. They’re reconsidering their own actions.

“It can take people that you love away from you,” said Webb.

Tommy’s mother, Evie Lesser says her son is the first to die from an apparent texting driver. She would like a lawmaker to pass a stricter law in her son’s name to strengthen texting laws.