When traffic safety is your focus, as it is for many of us, it can be easy to simply lean into the data. Crash numbers. Fatalities. Legal impairment levels. But in reality traffic safety is not numbers, it’s saving lives – the lives of real people with real loved ones.
This spring I experienced one of the most powerful reminders in my long career of the importance of our education and enforcement work. It came through the voice of an incredibly brave grieving mother and grandmother.
A year ago this month, 24-year-old Morgan Grunewald and her three young daughters were headed from a visit with her mother in Lamberton to their home in western Minnesota. Just 12 minutes into that drive, Jennifer Starkson receiving a jolting phone notification telling her Morgan’s pickup truck had been in accident. Within minutes, she and her husband arrived on the scene. Morgan had been killed in a crash with a semi-truck. Her three little girls, all safely bucked into their car seats in the pickup’s backseat, survived without a scratch.
In the aftermath of the crushing loss she and her family will feel forever, Jennifer wanted to share Morgan’s legacy as a mother who was unwavering in her commitment to making sure her daughters were correctly buckled in every time, every ride. In April, Jennifer told her heartbreaking story during a training webinar for Child Passenger Safety Technicians (CPSTs). In early May, she sat down with our video crew to tell her compelling story to a much larger audience, including all of you.
Thanks to Jennifer’s bravery, this video has already been viewed more than 7,000 times. I think you’ll find it incredibly moving. I tear up every time I watch it.
As we mark the anniversary of her death, it’s your turn to honor Morgan Grunewald for saving her little girls’ lives. Please share her story and this video far and wide – at meetings, on your organization and personal social media platforms, on office and plant video monitors, and with your family and friends. I guarantee you will save a life.
Yours in traffic safety,
Lisa
MN NETS Coordinator
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