Delco, Commonwealth Declare Distracted Driving Awareness Month

SPRINGFIELD TWP.—At the urging of the and Casey’s Feldman father, Joel D. Feldman, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Delaware County established April as Distracted Driving Awareness Month. A similar resolution was passed last week in Montgomery County.

Casey’s parents, Dianne Anderson and , were on hand at the county council meetings in Delaware and Montgomery counties to speak and were presented with copies of the resolutions.

“We all have to make a decision as to how we will drive,” Joel Feldman said. “Will we continue to take chances, continue to multitask and continue to drive selfishly, or will we decide that driving distracted can never be worth the risk?

“It took my daughter’s death for me to change the way I drive. It should not take personal tragedies for all of us to change the way we drive.”

Joel has been speaking to high school students over the past month and continues to do so virtually every day, rushing off after the Delaware County Council meeting to speak at Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont.

“The students are so receptive," Joel said. “The students realize that this is not just a teen problem. Not only are they willing to eliminate distractions while driving, they are willing to talk to their parents and encourage them to do so as well.”

The Delaware County Council resolution reads in part:

.…Whereas, Casey Feldman, a promising  21-year-old woman from Springfield Township, Delaware County, was killed by a distracted driver in July 2009 and has become a symbol of the toll of distracted driving; and,

Whereas, Casey’s family and friends established the Casey Feldman Memorial Foundation which is dedicated to reducing distracted driving for the safety and well-being of  everyone, and through which distracted driving awareness presentations to more than 50,000 high school students are being given across North America, including in Delaware County, during April in connection with Distracted Driving Awareness Month; and

Whereas many of us routinely take chances while driving,… We…declare April 2012 to be Distracted Driving Awareness Month…. We urge everyone to examine their driving habits and promise to protect ourselves and others on the road by reducing our distracted driving habits.

“The bottom line is that we would like something good to become of Casey’s death,” said Dianne Anderson, Casey’s mother. “If we can prevent this from happening to another person, then we have accomplished something in Casey’s name and memory. It gives us gratification to know that Casey’s death would not have been in vain.”

Learn more at www.caseyfeldmanfoundation.org