Over 2.5 million traffic accidents happen in the United States every year, and of those, a staggering 64 percent involve cellphones. The year of 2014 saw over 3,179 people killed in accidents that involved distracted drivers.

On September 2, 2016, 17 year-old Matthew Reeves was driving around in his mother’s car with his cellphone resting on the center console. Suddenly, the phone fell down to the floor of his car. Instead of pulling off the side of the road to retrieve it, Matthew decided to just slow down and take his foot off the gas as he grabbed for the phone.

“I didn’t feel like it would be that long to grab it, but when I came up it was too late,” Matthew recalled.

As Matthew tried to grab his phone, he crashed into the back of an SUV waiting to turn.

“I saw the rear end of the black SUV and I just remember hitting it really hard,” he said.

Luckily for Matthew, the driver of the SUV happened to be a nurse, who rushed over to help him. She kept the Manchester High School senior stable as they waited for paramedics to arrive.

Matthew was left with serious injuries including fractures in his nose, jaw, skull, and eye socket, an injured shoulder, a deep gash in his forehead and a serious concussion. Matthew still sees himself as lucky, as he could have either been killed or killed someone else.

Matthew’s mother Linda took to Facebook afterwards to post a photo of the totaled car in the hopes that this won’t happen to anyone else.

“Put the damn phones off and in a place you can’t be tempted to reach for it. Matt was lucky,” she wrote. “This could have had a different outcome.”

Matthew has since made a full recovery, and he has pledged that he will never look at his phone again while driving. Since the accident, Matthew and his family have continued to speak out about this to raise awareness about the dangers of using the phone while driving.

Find out more about Matthew’s story in the video below.