After Injuring Baby In Crash, Teen Speaks Out On Distracted Driving

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Distracted driving killed 48 people on Minnesota roads last year.

A texting teenager nearly made that number 49.

Shyann Ericksen hit another car head-on in Eagan last summer.

"After I checked the text message, I put the phone down, turned left without looking, and that's when I crashed into someone else's car," she said.

A 1-year-old boy named Henry, who was in that car, is still recovering from a traumatic brain injury.

Ericksen is now 18. She sat down with WCCO-TV to talk about what it feels like to be on her side of the crash.

She said that sitting down for the interview on Wednesday wasn't her proudest moment, but it was an important one.

"I mean, part of me is ashamed," she said. "But I feel like this is part of a healing process."

And with that, she went through the morning that changed her from a selfie-loving teenager to a self-aware young woman.

She described the moments after the crash.

"I was screaming, I didn't know what was going on," she said. "I got out, I walked across the street, and I saw the other people in the car, and I saw the carseat in the backseat, and that's when it hit me, what just happened, what did I do."

Henry was in that car seat, bleeding from his mouth. His brain was bleeding, too.

"I knew that's what caused it, that's what caused the whole thing, and it broke my heart to know that I caused this, this much pain," Ericksen said.

She knew reading the text was the cause of the crash because it was something she'd often done behind the wheel.

While her license has been taken away, her carefree attitude has gone, too.

"That's not the way to go about anything," Ericksen said said. "You can't multitask while you're driving."

The court won't let her contact Henry or his mom.

But she says, in a way, his presence is always near.

"I want him to know this could have happened to anyone, and I feel so terrible that it happened to him," Ericksen said. "Why him? Why not me? That's what I think about every day."

Henry's mom says he's getting stronger, but only time will tell if there's lasting damage.

Ericksen hopes to speak at schools about what happened. She's working two jobs so she can pay Henry's family the court-ordered fine for their injuries.