Fourteen people across Kansas and Missouri are sharing stories as part of the annual Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day safety blog series. Some stories share triumph about a life saved, while some stories tell the tragedy of a life being taken.
“My beautiful daughter, Danielle, made a decision that not only took her life, but flipped life upside down for her entire family and so many friends,” said Jacque Tierce, of Larned, in Tuesday’s safety blog. “She was texting on Snapchat while driving down the highway at 65 mph, didn’t see a semi in front of her that slowed to make a turn and slammed into the back of it without braking.”
Danielle died in May 2018 because she was texting while driving. “She’s not here and never will be again,” Jacque said. “Sometimes you just have to breathe through the pain. A pain that will be there for the rest of your life.”
Four Kansas Highway Patrol troopers will also be sharing stories throughout the series. When a person dies in a vehicle crash, they are the one whose job it is to notify the next of kin. They see the consequences and the pain the families suffer, and they experience some of that as well.
Technical Trooper Tod Hileman from Hays recalled responding to a double fatality involving teenagers. Part of the process is to make sure victims are correctly identified. During that process, he noticed the teenaged girl driving the car was the same age as his daughter and had the same hair and eye color.
“I just kind of had a flash that it was my daughter lying there,” Hileman said. “So that really hit me.”
After everything was wrapped up at the crash scene, Hileman had to go meet the parents and “told them the words they never ever wanted to hear in their life.”
The safety blog series started Sept. 22 and runs through Oct. 11 as part of the efforts in Kansas to highlight the Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day national safety campaign. Whether you are in a vehicle, on a motorcycle or even walking, the campaign’s goal is for you to arrive safely.
To read all the safety blogs in this series, go to http://kansastransportation.blogspot.com/search/label/PBFD%202021?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery. Jacque Tierce’s blog is titled “You just have to breathe through the pain.”
