SALT LAKE CITY — As a part of National Teen Driver Safety Week, state officials with the departments of Transportation, Public Safety, and Health and Human Resources invited families to recount how they lost teenage children in motor vehicle crashes.
“It shouldn’t be this way, us burying our own child. A mother, a parent, should never bury their child,” said DeShawna Joe of Tremonton.
She and Brian Berry of West Haven are part of a club no parent wants to join. They were both at the Marmalade Branch Public Library on Tuesday to share their stories to promote the statewide initiative for teens dubbed “Zero Fatalities.”
They both lost teenagers on Utah roads who were involved in vehicle crashes last year.
“I actually heard the sirens go by my house,” said Berry.
Berry’s 18-year-old son Ben was killed instantly while riding his motorcycle near his home.
Berry said a car came out of nowhere — from the shoulder of the road into an active lane of traffic.
“When I pulled up, I could see his bike on the sidewalk,” he said. “I could see him in the middle of the road, and they were all working on him. They performed lifesaving tactics for 45 minutes, even though he was killed on impact.”