Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- During a Teen Memoriam ceremony in Salt Lake City, families honored teenagers who died in vehicle-related accidents, emphasizing the importance of road safety.
- Families shared stories of their grief, but also encouraged everyone to be safe on the roads.
- UDOT's Zero Fatalities program aims to reduce teen driving deaths by promoting graduated driver's licenses, emphasizing safe driving habits.
SALT LAKE CITY — DeShawna Joe sets a place setting for her daughter SoRaya Manakaja every night at dinner.
She knows SoRaya uses her three little sisters when she thinks Joe needs to learn a lesson. And when she trains for her 250-mile running events, SoRaya is right there with her, pushing her to achieve new distances and finish in faster times.
On the surface, these could represent regular interactions between a mother and her daughter. Not so with Joe and SoRaya. SoRaya died slightly more than a year ago at age 16 when she collided with a garbage truck while riding her bike.
"Every day is a nightmare. You wake up every morning and the pain is still there," Joe said Tuesday. "But my three younger daughters get me through. I have to live for them. So we still celebrate her birthday and eat at her favorite restaurants. And ask everyone to pay a little bit more attention when they're driving."
Joe spoke Tuesday at the Marmalade Branch of the Salt Lake Public Library as part of the Teen Memoriam program, honoring the lives of teenagers killed as a result of vehicle-related accidents and spreading the need to be cautious while on the roads. In 2023 in Utah, 38 teenagers were killed in car accidents, some as the drivers, others as a bike rider, pedestrian, passenger or motorcycle rider. The Utah Department of Transportation reports those numbers are expected to decrease this year, but not to zero.
The Zero Fatalities program, led by UDOT and supported by the Utah Department of Public Safety and Department of Health and Human Services, has the end goal of zero fatalities on any road across Utah. To improve the safety of teen drivers, the website provides pre-driver information for 12- to 14-year-olds, assists parents with ways to speak to their teenagers about driving safely, and holds information from past Teen Memoriams.
The website also suggests teenagers get a graduated driver's license, an approved license that has various safety mandates integrated into a teen driver's progression.
"We need to have conversations about how to stay safe and practice safe driving habits," said Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Jess Anderson. He is also the father of a 16-year-old daughter with a graduated driver's license. "As difficult as it is for her ... by not being able to have friends in the car, what is important is her ability to stay focused while she's driving."
During the ceremony guests could peruse a book — the Teen Memoriam — with the stories of eight teens killed in car accidents in 2023. This book is given to driver's education teachers across the state as well as to the families themselves. Parents write the entries about their children, with some working on it a few months after their teenager's death. A remembrance event is also held for families of any teen killed in car accidents.
Although all 38 families were invited to write for the book and speak at the Teen Memoriam event, not all parents and siblings are ready to share the tragedy of their family member's death.
Brian Berry, of West Haven, spoke about his son Ben who was killed in a motorcycle accident shortly after his 18th birthday. As would be expected of any parent speaking of a lost child, Berry got emotional at times, but steeled himself to let others know how joyous his son was and to share a message.
"He was such a big-hearted individual that would go out of his way to brighten someone's day," he told the crowd Tuesday. "If I had to plead with people on anything, it's just take a second look. I really want to make sure that if anything comes out of this, it's that we can save one life."
