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Mourning Mom Helps Schools Teach Kids To Drive Safely

Tribune photo by Christine Delessio

Maria Laidley and her neighbor, Jazmin Niles, talk with students at Wiregrass High School about the importance of safe driving. Laidley's 17-year-old son, Matthew, a senior at Wesley Chapel High was killed in an automobile accident last fall.

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By RONNIE BLAIR

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 25, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - The night before she speaks is torture, yet Maria Laidley feels compelled to stand before teenagers and relive what she calls the "most horrible pain imaginable."

This is the story she can never forget: In August, her 17-year-old son, Matthew, began his senior year at Wesley Chapel High School with all the hope and ambition befitting an honors student.

Less than two weeks later he was dead, killed when a 1999 Isuzu Trooper, in which he was a passenger, crashed. It happened after school let out, on a day as bright as Matthew's future had been.

Witnesses told the Florida Highway Patrol the teenager driving the Isuzu passed several cars on the right shoulder of the road, tried to pass one more using a turn lane and lost control of the Trooper. The driver, Adam Orton Sanford, 18, of 2032 Rensselaer Drive, was arrested Wednesday on vehicular homicide and manslaughter by culpable negligence charges.

Now, Maria Laidley seeks what solace she can by standing before high school assemblies and recounting this cautionary tale of how tragedy can strike in an instant.

This is the time of year that especially worries high school officials and inspires many such safe-driving assemblies. Proms and commencement ceremonies can lead to celebrating - and sometimes inebriated - teens cruising the highways late at night.

Schools aren't averse to shock tactics to get the teenagers' attention. They march students into football stadiums to witness mock prom night accidents, with bloody bodies, smashed cars, hysterical parents and helicopters swooping in to claim seriously injured survivors.

On other occasions, schools bring in speakers such as Laidley to put a real face to the accident statistics.

"It's a very heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching revival of the whole experience because you have to explain to them what it's like to get that news," she said.

Laidley's hope is that her message will get through to the teens so that other parents won't have to endure what she has.

It's inevitable that some will, though.

Teenagers, much more than older drivers, are prone to accidents. In many cases, someone dies in those crashes.

"Teens need to realize they aren't bulletproof because they are 17," said Dennis Holt, who oversees the Hillsborough County School District driver's education program. "I know that is difficult for students to comprehend."

Nationally, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for young people ages 8 to 17, according to a study published in March in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The risk is highest for passengers when the driver also is a teenager, the study said.

"Nobody is immune from it," said Sherrie Candelaria, a parent who helped organize a safe driving assembly April 4 at Wiregrass Ranch High in Wesley Chapel. "Kids don't realize how serious that one time can be."

Candelaria said she has a personal experience to back that up.

One day in March, she was driving on County Line Road after leaving the school when a pickup with three teens in it cut between her and a school bus. Candelaria said she swerved to avoid an accident, hit the curb and blew a tire.

"We're really proactive in academics," Candelaria said. "If we don't educate them on this, what good have we done?"

Scheduling Drive Time

Holt said the Hillsborough district spends about $3 million a year to provide driver's education. All 25 high schools have a program and about 8,000 to 9,000 students participate each school year.

An additional 1,500 students take the course over the summer. Many of those students are from private schools or charter schools, Holt said.

Holt likes to quote one of his teachers, K.B. Scull at Bloomingdale High, who said, "This is the one course that can be the difference between life and death."

One of the biggest challenges teachers face is making sure students get the behind-the-wheel time they need.

That's especially difficult in Pasco County, where most high schools have just one driver's education teacher, compared with two per school in Hillsborough.

"I just ordered a driver simulator," said Greg Finkel, the driver's education teacher at Wiregrass Ranch High. "That's not the same as getting out on the road, but it helps."

It's impossible for a driver's education class to provide students as much on-the-road experience as they need, so students take home a driving log to track additional instructional time with parents.

In Hillsborough, students must document at least 10 hours of driving at home and parents must sign the log. Teachers have the discretion of requiring additional time if they feel it's warranted.

"This is one of the homework assignments we have very little trouble getting students to comply with," Holt said.

Hillsborough has driving simulators in 10 high schools and expects to add them at other schools as funding allows, Holt said. While real driving time beats the simulators, the machine allows teachers to put students in hazardous situations, such as being in a thunderstorm at night on the interstate, to give them the experience without the danger, he said.

Driver's education is an elective course, but could become a requirement under a bill suggested by Hillsborough County students and currently before the Legislature.

Another bill would restrict the number of passengers for drivers younger than 18. For the first six months of being licensed, the driver couldn't have any passengers who are minors. After six months, the driver couldn't have more than three minor passengers. Siblings and the driver's own children would be exempt from the restriction.

"I don't have a lot of quarrel with those kinds of restrictions," Holt said.

Dreams Never Experienced

Despite all these efforts, the accidents continue.

One that happened in Pinellas County in September led to charges against a parent. A 15-year-old boy, driving without adult supervision, crashed his mother's car, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.

One of his five teenage passengers, Raquel Carreras, 14, a Northeast High School student, was killed, the patrol reported.

In March, the boy's mother, Lesa Ledesma, 42, of St. Petersburg, was charged with manslaughter because authorities said she gave her son the keys to her car knowing it was against the law for him to drive without adult supervision or after 10 p.m. The wreck happened at 10:45 p.m.

Natasha Govoruhk, 18, a senior at River Ridge High in New Port Richey, knows what it's like to lose a loved one in an accident. Her stepbrother, Justin Shofner, 18, died in October 2006 when he lost control of his car on State Road 54 and struck two vehicles.

His death haunted her. In February, she stood beside her mother, Kristen Ainsworth, and in an emotional moment spoke to her fellow students at River Ridge. Justin also attended the high school and was no different from them, Govoruhk said. However, all the things high school students dream about, he never got the chance to experience.

"He didn't get to go to his senior prom," she said. "He didn't get to graduate. He didn't get to go to college." Her words lingered as a hush descended on the assembly.

"You hear their story and everyone is quiet," said Denise Russo, 16, a junior.

This is the kind of reaction Maria Laidley seeks because she wants teenagers to realize the story goes beyond the young life that is lost. Parents, siblings and friends deal with their grief long after the rest of the world moves on.

"They think they are invincible at that age," Laidley said. "But their parents are not invincible. Their brothers and sisters are not invincible. I want them to feel it, to taste it, to understand."

Laidley admits there's bit of selfishness involved here. She wants Matthew to be remembered. She wants to attach some meaning to the otherwise senseless tragedy that stole him from her.

"If he has to be the poster boy for this, at least something will have come of it," she said.

Nothing can make it right, though, she said.

Nothing changes the fact she has experienced "the most horrible pain imaginable."

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218 or rblair@tampatrib.com.

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