{"id":8811,"date":"2012-05-10T08:18:41","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T12:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=8811"},"modified":"2012-05-10T08:18:42","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T12:18:42","slug":"turning-tragedy-into-action-working-to-keep-teens-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=8811","title":{"rendered":"Turning tragedy into action: working to keep teens safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grieving Unionville couple committed to saving lives with better driving training
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong>, Special to UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A Unionville High student demonstrates one of the driving simulators.<\/p><\/div>\n

Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, a statistic so dire that the Centers for Disease Control added this explanation to its most recent data: Eight teens ages 16 to 19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries in 2009. Per mile driven,\u00a0drivers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to crash, the agency said.<\/p>\n

One local couple has been working tirelessly to reverse those numbers. Brian and Cheri Miller committed themselves to using the pain of their daughter\u2019s death to pay tribute to her memory and to try and prevent similar tragedies.<\/p>\n

On June 13, 2008, Abby Miller, a 17-year-old, volunteer softball coach with an infectious smile, died after swerving to avoid a deer on U.S. 1. The Unionville High junior had been licensed less than nine months, and police attributed the fatal crash to inexperienced driving. After nearly 1,500 people showed up for their daughter\u2019s memorial service, her parents said they realized they could best honor her legacy of outreach by continuing it.<\/p>\n

Since then, Brian and Cheri Miller, who founded Safe at Home, the Abby Miller Foundation, have been working to promote the importance of driver\u2019s education \u2013 a casualty of budget cuts in many school districts.<\/p>\n

On the anniversary of his daughter\u2019s death this past summer, Brian Miller delivered an impassioned plea to the Unionville school board to fund a driver\u2019s education course. A week later, the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education voted to offer free drivers\u2019 education to students for the first time since the early 1990s. Previously, the class had been run by the Chester County Intermediate Unit and cost parents $300.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very pleased,\u201d Miller said in a recent interview. \u201cLearning to drive is one of the most important skills kids learn, and it shouldn\u2019t be taken lightly. Having safer drivers benefits everyone on the highway.<\/p>\n

Through the foundation, the Millers have also donated three high-tech driving simulators to both Unionville and Garnet Valley High. Experts say the simulators give teens a safe environment in which to gain valuable practice at maneuvers such as avoiding a hazard or navigating a slick road.<\/p>\n

Miller said he just ordered six more of the $15,000 machines for Unionville. He said the school wanted eight so that students in the drivers\u2019 education program would not have long waits to use them. He said he hopes the foundation\u2019s upcoming fund-raisers might enable him to order two more before school starts next year, creating a program that could become a model for other districts..<\/p>\n

Those events include a beef and beer dinner with dancing and a silent and live auction on June 1, a softball tournament with both competitive and recreational categories on June 2, and a golf tournament June 4; sponsors and auction donations are being sought. On July 4, the foundation will be the beneficiary of the Brandywine Valley Summer Series AA Horse Show for the first time. For more information, or to register for the events, visit http:\/\/abbymillerfoundation.org<\/a>. To donate an item for the silent auction, contact
\nBrian Miller at brian@abbymillerfoundation.org<\/a> or Megan Basilio at Meganbasilio@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have information on how to help prevent\u201d teen-driving fatalities, Miller said. \u201cSo we want to do whatever we can to spare others from what we went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Police attributed Abby Miller's fatal car accident to inexperienced driving.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grieving Unionville couple committed to saving lives with better driving training By Kathleen Brady Shea, Special to UnionvilleTimes.com Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, a statistic so dire that the Centers for Disease Control added this explanation to its most recent data: Eight teens ages 16 to 19 died […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,16],"tags":[382,1246,1244,1245,1243],"class_list":["post-8811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools","tag-drivers-education","tag-driving-simulators","tag-teen-driving","tag-teen-safety","tag-unionville-high"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}