SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Thirty teenagers were killed on Utah roads in 2025. During National Teen Driver Safety Week, Utah officials and families who have experienced unimaginable loss are hoping their stories encourage drivers to make safer choices behind the wheel.
For Rob Wilson, the statistics represent far more than a number. They represent his daughter, Anneka.
“She was a great young lady," Wilson said. "Raised right. Did the right things all the time."
Wilson remembers Anneka as someone who cared deeply about the people around her.
“I have pride because my daughter Anneka was a standout,” he said. “She was a beautiful soul, beautiful person and loved those around her. And I can look at that and say, that was my baby.”
But Anneka's teenage years were cut short on Nov. 29, 2025.
Wilson said Anneka and her boyfriend, Leo Shepherd, were traveling to see their family in Idaho when they were killed in a head-on crash involving an impaired driver.
“Drunk driving is a choice,” Wilson said. “Somebody chose to get behind the wheel drunk and hit my daughter head-on at 120 miles an hour. How do you prepare somebody to avoid that? You can’t.”
The loss, he said, has left “a hole that will never be filled.”
Wilson is now sharing Anneka’s story as part of Utah’s Teen Memoriam, which remembers young people who died on the state’s roads.
Brooke Garner is doing the same for her 16-year-old son, Conner Russell, who died in March.
Garner said Conner was a passenger in a vehicle after he and the driver had been drinking. Neither was wearing a seat belt when, she said, the driver was traveling around 100 mph, lost control on a curve and the vehicle rolled multiple times.
Both teens were ejected from the vehicle. Garner said Conner was killed on impact.
Talking about what happened is difficult, but Garner hopes sharing Conner’s story will persuade another driver to make a different decision.
“If we can make just one single different choice and be here and come home to our families, and live, then it was worth it to me,” Garner said. “Then this isn’t all for nothing.”
Utah's Teen Memoriam began in 2007, when 40 teenagers lost their lives on the state's roads. The number of teen deaths has fluctuated in the years since, but the effort to prevent more families from experiencing the same loss continues.
According to Zero Fatalities, 43 teen drivers were involved in a fatal crash in 2025, and a total of 47 people were killed in these crashes. The organization said the risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among 16-to 19-year-olds than among any other age group.
UDOT and UHP both shared that they’re trying to intervene before a decision becomes a tragedy.
“As parents and humans, it’s our responsibility to prepare people the best we can,” Wilson said.
For Wilson, sharing Anneka’s story is another way his daughter can continue helping others.
“If it can help somebody be aware and alert of the surroundings, that’s good,” he said. “Because that’s who my daughter was. She would’ve helped anybody, anywhere, at any time.”
For the parents they left behind, sharing their stories is painful. But they hope remembering their children can help another teenager make it home safely.