OPRAH WINFREY (VOICEOVER): In 2014, there was a YouTube video
that went viral when more than 8 million people
watched the story of Liz Marks.
When she was 17, she was driving her car when she glanced down
at a text, just for second.
And that moment changed the course of her life forever.
LIZ MARKS (VOICEOVER): Before the car accident, the thing
I did in high school with my friends were, you know,
go to the high school games and everything.
Maybe we can go to a party, go bowling.
I was a good student.
I was a role model.
I was, like, a popular girl in high school,
so I used to model.
BETTY SHAW: I would ask her all the time.
Liz, to you text and drive?
And she said, no, Mom, I swear I don't.
Don't worry.
I don't use my phone when I'm behind the wheel.
LIZ MARKS (VOICEOVER): I ignored those warnings
about texting while driving, because everyone else
was doing it.
So I thought it was OK.
I thought I was invincible.
But clearly I was completely wrong.
[SIREN WAILING]
BETTY SHAW: I was getting ready for work.
And then 12 hours later, I'm in ICU,
staring at my daughter, who's bald,
and tubes running in and out of her body.
And it's just overwhelming devastation over a stupid text.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The consequences of my life now, after the car accident,
is the fact that I'm blind in one eye now, I cannot smell,
I cannot hear very good because a bone broke
in my half inside my eardrum.
I can't create tears, because both my tear ducts got damaged.
And I can't put my body sleep naturally.
I take medicine to go to sleep.
The hardest part about my life after the car accident
was the fact that I was alone.
Everyone was away at college.
I wasn't.
I couldn't drive.
I couldn't go to college.
My friends were there for me at first.
But after a while, they weren't.
Liz Marks is now 21.
And she wants everybody to know and to learn
from her tragic mistake.
Liz and her mother Betty are here with us today.
Hi, welcome. -Hi, thank you.
Hi. Thank you for having us.
OPRAH WINFREY: Thanks for your courage to be here
and to talk about this.
So take us back to four years ago.
What happened?
Well, on April 7, 2012, I was glancing down to read
a text message from my mom.
I rode completely under the back of a flatbed tow truck.
OPRAH WINFREY: So you looked down.
She had texted you.
What had you texted her, Betty? -"OK."
That was it.
That was the quick message, "OK."
OPRAH WINFREY: It was the looking down to see the text.
LIZ MARKS: Just reading.
That's all-- that's all it took.
I lost all my short-term memory, so I
don't remember the car accident, two weeks
before, or three months after.
OPRAH WINFREY: Two weeks before or three months after.
You don't remember anything about that.
Nothing at all.
OPRAH WINFREY: You've seen the car, though, right?
LIZ MARKS: Yeah.
OPRAH WINFREY: Can you believe you lived?
LIZ MARKS: No.
I still, to this day, I cannot believe I lived.
BETTY SHAW: She was not supposed to live.
It is a miracle that she is here.
OPRAH WINFREY: Yes.
It is a miracle.
She's here for a reason. That's what we will.
OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah, she's here to spread the word.
And I hear that you brought some pretty
graphic pictures of yourself.
LIZ MARKS: Yes, mm-hm.
I want people to see those pictures,
and I want you to know, they're graphic.
That is what your head looked like.
LIZ MARKS: Yes.
That's me during my skull surgery.
And when you see that, it-- it makes the miracle of your being
here with us now--
And when other people see it, it makes them think twice.
OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. I want people to think that.
I want people to see that and think twice.
Did you use text and drive pretty
regularly before this happened?
LIZ MARKS: Oh, yeah, 24-7.
I thought I was invincible, but obviously I
was completely wrong.