About 30 drivers education students in River Falls, Wis. received a powerful lesson Monday night. Pam Remer told the soon-to-be drivers about the traffic crash that claimed her daughter's life one year ago.
"I'm sure you must have said this at one time or another, and Breanna said it too: 'It'll never happen to me,'" Pam Remer told the group. "Well, I'm here to tell you that it did."
Pam's daughter, Breanna, was 19 years old. She told her family she was going to dinner with some friends on November 10, 2006. But she actually went drinking in a party limo while celebrating a friend's 21st birthday.
Afterward, Breanna got in her car and drove. Investigators believe she was speeding, drunk and on her cell phone when she lost control of her vehicle on Interstate 694 in Oakdale. She lost control of her car, which rolled several times and hit a tree. Breanna was partially ejected.
"She died all alone," Pam Remer says. "We didn't have the opportunity to be with her. She made it very difficult for them to find us because she had three different IDs on her, so they didn't know who she was."
Pam Remer's speech is part of a new program by the St. Croix Valley Restorative Justice program, which received a grant from the Allstate Foundation for Safe Teen Driving.
Organizers hope the project sends a powerful message to teenagers before they ever get behind the wheel.
"This story has taught me the importance of family and I'll definitely tell my parents where I am at all times," one student said after hearing Remer's story.
Other students promised to obey traffic laws, buckle up and never drink and drive.
"I need to bring some significance to Breanna's death and this is one way of doing that," Pam Remer said.
The St. Croix Valley Restorative Justice program has spoken to about six drivers ed classes since getting the grant this summer. Organizer Kris Miner hopes to reach many more kids in the future.
(Copyright 2007 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
