Distracted Driving Loren Vaillancourt Summary

Traumatic experiences shape the lives of people and changes their outlook on certain actions. Oftentimes people never realize the dangers something can cause until it negatively impacts them. An important way to stop this from happening is to spread awareness about the dangers of certain actions. Loren Vaillancourt suffered from the loss of her brother due to distracted driving. Ever since the death of her brother she has tried to spread the message about the dangers of distracted driving. She came to prominence in 2010 by winning Miss South Dakota. She used her title as a way to bring awareness to the topic of distracted driving.

Distracted riving can come from a multitude of sources including texting, eating and drinking, and adjusting a

radio. The amount of people who died from distracted driving in 2011 were 3,360 people while 3,328 people died in 2012. The amount of people injured from distracted driving totals at 387, 000 people in 2011. Ten percent of all crashes created by those under the age of 20 are distracted driving related. The risk of getting into a crash is three times greater when driving distracted (distraction.gov).
Loren Vaillancourt’s brother Kelson died on May 21, 2009 due to the injuries of a car accident cause by distracted driving.

She describes her story as a part of the “Faces of Distracted Driving” series on distraction.gov. She describes her brother as a person that “always smiled and never had an emotionless face or frown” (Vaillancourt). She described him as sweet, energetic, and that he was “full of life” (Vaillancourt). Her brother was participating in an internship at the time. Another intern was driving while he was the passenger. The other intern went past a stop sign without yielding and collided with a semi. While the driver was killed instantly, her brother was taken to the hospital. She emotionally describes how she “held her 21 year old brother’s hand while he died” (Vaillancourt). Her emotions capture you to visualize her experience and what she had gone

through.
After winning Miss South Dakota, she immediately worked to spread her message across the state of South Dakota. She spread her message by communicating with schools, parent groups, and civic organizations. An effective part of her platform gaining attention was establishing a partnership with State Farm. Terry Barton, Vice President for South Dakota for State Farm, stated how “State Farm is proud to partner with Loren to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving South Dakota” (plainsman). Loren Vaillancourt with State Farm created a grant program called “Driving the Dollars.”
To help spread the message she used the “Driving the Dollars” grant program, the “Race Against Distracted Driving” 5k Walk/Run, and video diaries.

The video diaries were used to describe her personal campaign against distracted driving until the Miss America pageant. The number of likes would affect the total dollar amount contributed to the grant program. The original idea of “Driving the Dollars” was for two South Dakota schools to receive money to create anti-distracted driving programs. A change was made to have three schools in South Dakota to get grants. Madison High School, Newell School District, and South Middle School were awarded the money to create programs after working against distracted driving. The 5k walk/run took place on June 11, 2011 at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls. The schools were awarded before the event. The walk/run as sponsored by Miss South Dakota Organization, State Farm, and the South Dakota Safety

Council.
The opposition might think she might not have made a large enough impact. However, her impact is still an aspect of social change. As she changed an area of the nation, people are now impacted to make a further and larger change. They also might think her issue is not relevant due to low amount of deaths. On the contrary, any life is worth saving and distracted driving can 100% be prevented.
Loren Vaillancourt made an impact as Miss South Dakota by creating awareness for distracted driving. The lesson learned is that we should fight against subjects that have negatively affected us in our past. She communicates her message by giving an emotional appeal of her brother’s death. Her effectiveness in spreading her message gained her a partnership with State Farm. This topic is important to us because we fall under the age group with the most distracted driving related accidents. We should try our hardest not to drive distracted and spread the message so no one will experience what Loren Vaillancourt had to.