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Fifteen-year-old Valerie Trull had a bright future ahead of her. At Southeast Guilford High School, she was a varsity cheerleader and dreamed of one day becoming a veterinarian.

But on Feb. 27, 2005, her life was cut short when she and 17-year-old Jordan Hodgin were killed in a car crash.

They were back-seat passengers in a car in which the driver was going more than 70 mph in a 45-mph zone.

Though the accident was nearly five years ago, Trull and Hodgin’s memory lives on through the Crash Prevention Network of North Carolina, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the awareness and prevention of avoidable causes of motor-vehicle accidents.

“It’s the situation that she’s still touching lives after the fact,” said Gary Trull, Valerie’s father. “Her memory lives on. As a parent losing a child, you just don’t want anybody to forget.”

Greensboro resident Michael Jackson created the Crash Prevention Network in 2005. Although the organization devotes some of its time to drunk-driving issues, it also focuses on common nonalcohol-related issues such as speeding, seat-belt safety and texting or talking on the phone while driving.

“Drunk driving gets all the publicity, but speeding kills three times as many people,” Jackson said. “Most people don’t realize that.”

Both drinking and speed apparently were factors in a recent accident that took three lives. The Feb. 13 car crash in Browns Summit killed passengers Scott Bedwell, 23; Sascha Hoffmann, 18; and Taylor McCaskill, 18. Amanda Sperduti, 20, is believed to have been driving at 90 mph at the time of the crash. She has also been charged with driving while impaired.

Jackson said the Crash Prevention Network plans to reach out to the families of crash victims. The network has the support of about 450 families who donate their money or time. Gary Trull sometimes speaks at Crash Prevention Network functions and provides moral support for other people who have lost friends or family members to car accidents.

“It helps you mentally to cope with the loss of a child or the loss of a family member,” Trull said.

Jackson has been involved in motor vehicle safety and crash prevention work for about 20 years.

He founded the Guilford County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 1990 following the death of Southeast High School student Allison Gannon, his 16-year-old neighbor.

“At that time, I had a teenager daughter, and I knew without a little luck and the grace of God, that could have been my daughter,” Jackson said.

Throughout the 20-year span of his crash-prevention work, Jackson has worked closely with Bob Owens, who started a Students Against Destructive Decisions chapter at Northeast High School in 1982.

At that time, the school lost about two students a year to alcohol-related accidents.

By 1985, the SADD chapter had signed 1,000 members, who frequently assisted Jackson whenever he needed a large number of volunteers.
“It’s a symbiotic relationship,” Owens said. “It was extraordinarily important that the high school kids felt this commitment they were making had more than just the promise not to drink and drive.”

Jackson and Owens still occasionally work with MADD and SADD. But Owens said as those national organizations grew, he and Jackson wanted to focus on establishing a local network.

“The Crash Prevention Network gives us an ability to expand what we want to do and keep the money here in our local community,” Owens said.

The network’s local programs include The Right Choice, in which people who have been affected by car crashes speak to students and adults about their experiences.

One frequent volunteer is former WXII (Channel 12) anchor Tolly Carr, who was convicted of felony death by motor vehicle and felony serious injury by motor vehicle after he struck and killed Winston-Salem resident Casey Bokhoven while driving drunk in 2007.

The program is also featured monthly at the Guilford County courthouse, where volunteers speak to recent traffic violators.

“It’s such a critical issue in our society,” Jackson said. “You lose over 60,000 people a year in crashes on the highway, and we feel that 95 percent of them are 100 percent avoidable.”

Plans are in place for the Crash Prevention Network to extend its programs statewide.

Owens said the organization is also developing a free school program that will emphasize the importance of students making the right choices.

“Our goal is to reach one person,” Jackson said. “We don’t have to save 10,000 people to be successful. If we can just keep one person from dying, it’s worth all the work that we do.”

Contact Alexa Milan at 373-7120 or alexandra.milan@news-record.com