DD Advocate Smith Writes Back

Remember back in May when I wrote to Jennifer Smith, distracted driving advocate and my personal hero? The realistic side of my brain said people are too busy to read and respond to every piece of mail they receive. That left brain says, "It's good therapy for you to keep trying to reach everyone though." Well guess what, Lefty! Jennifer wrote me back! She also agreed to be a guest blogger for this site soon. Here's some of her response to my outreach...

Jennifer Smith at her mother's
crash site (photo source)

Hello Jaimee,

...I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your sister. I, all too well, understand the unexpected loss of a loved one so senselessly. I would be more than happy to write a guest blog for you. As you know, this type of work is what keeps me going and talking about the loss and fighting to make a change is my therapy. I have been fortunate enough to have met some of the most amazing families in this journey and the losses we have suffered are the common bond we all wish we did not have. I am sorry you could not make it to the summit but very soon we will have the videos available form the event and you can watch the whole thing. The panels provided a lot of education and information, and they are meant to be shared with anyone and every one to educate them and bring about a change in behaviors so others do not have to suffer our same losses.

We have so many families in Texas that have joined together to comfort each other and to ensure the much needed changes occur in laws and behaviors. From the summit we are putting together an event to be held at the Capitol in Austin sometime in January with Representative Craddick and Senator Zaffarini's offices as they will be re-introducing more legislation during the next session.  We want to get all of the families there and speak to the legislators about our losses and why the state must do something to stop these tragedies from occurring.  I will make sure and let you know when we have more details on the event, and I would be more than happy to connect you with some of the other families in the state so you can work with them as well.

Please feel free to contact me anytime for anything.  I am traveling a lot but I will always find time to connect. I consider people like you my new family and together we can help each other get through the most horrific experiences in our lives.  Please offer the rest of your family my condolences and keep up your great work...

Jennifer Smith