LOGAN, Utah - A community event held at Logan High School earlier this week focused on the dangers of distracted driving.
One of the speakers, Elissa Schee, talked about the loss of her daughter, who was killed because of a distracted driver.
"It's like taking your world full of color and then all of a sudden everything is gray. You can't even say that it's black and white. It's gray," Schee said.
Schee says a semi plowed into the back of her daughter's school bus, killing her. The driver of the semi was talking on a cell phone while driving and later admitted that he was too distracted to see the bus.
"I've become a whole new person. In the beginning I was literally paralyzed. I couldn't talk about her, I couldn't talk about what happened. It took me a long time. However, I did vow to her at the crash site that I wasn't going to let her die in vain," she said.
Schee says she's made it her mission to inform others about the dangers of distracted driving. She says even she is guilty of distracted driving, but it's time for everyone to stop.
"We've got to educate, we've got to have laws and we've got to enforce those laws," she said.
At an event held on Thursday, Schee was joined by local law enforcement and emergency room physicians hoping to get the message across.
"We're taking this seriously to eliminate distractions as much as we possibly can just to bring those fatalities down because nationwide we have seen the numbers from distracted driving increasing," said Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Cameron Roden.
The event also including an on-stage emergency room simulation of victims involved in a car crash while texting or talking on a phone while driving.
