Sign This Pledge: A Promise to Adam

Hi HC-ers,

I want to share with you a really important message from my friend Katie, whose 17-year-old brother Adam was killed in a car crash earlier this year.  Katie and her family are asking you to sign a pledge- A Promise to Adam- to help make sure these types of accidents don’t happen again.  Please read Katie’s story below, and visit A Promise to Adam to sign the pledge. 

HC Love,
Stephanie

A Promise to Adam
By Katie London

Everyone has heard about a car crash where the driver was speeding and not wearing a seatbelt. A young life taken too soon. It happens a few towns over. It happens to someone in your cousin’s town. It happens to someone your parents knew growing up. It doesn’t happen in your community, to your family, to you. Except, it does. I know because it happened in my community, to my family, to Adam—my younger brother.
 
My brother, Adam, was 17 years old and two weeks away from starting his senior year of high school when he was killed in a single car crash in which he was the driver. This isn’t the kind of article you want to read. It’s also not the kind I ever wanted to write. So why am I writing it?
 
Because my family and I are asking you to take a pledge, to make a promise to Adam.

 
Let me first tell you a little about my brother so you know who you are making this promise to. He got average grades with above average intelligence. He didn’t study for the AP US History exam, but did pick up his study guide after the test to read the interesting sections. Adam was a skilled lacrosse goalie, respected by his teammates and opposing teams alike. He was confident, but (mostly) with good reason. Everyone who knew Adam has stories about how he used to make them laugh for hours on end.
 
Adam was kind and sensitive, which he didn’t always want you to know. Although he often came across as a typical 17-year-old boy, I’ve heard more than one of his friends say they are having trouble coping with his loss because they usually relied on Adam for emotional support. Even though he’d roll his eyes in front of his friends when I asked for a hug when I came home from college or grad school, Adam would always insist I wake him up to say goodbye when I returned to school early in the morning. Also, he always looked out for his twin sister, Lizzy.
 
I don’t mean to make Adam sound like the perfect popular kid from teen movies. He struggled to become a good, patient lacrosse goalie. He had to learn how to work with his teammates. He fought with his older brother, his twin sister, and me. He didn’t always listen to my parents.
 
My brother was a good kid on the path to becoming a great man.

 
Adam was a smart kid who made a bad decision. He drove too quickly. It was raining. He didn’t put his seatbelt on. He lost control of his car, hit a tree, flipped the car, and was killed instantly. There are some things you should know about the accident:

• It was not late at night: it was 9:46 PM.
• This was not on the highway: Adam was on a small secondary road, driving to a friend’s house.
• This was not unfamiliar territory: it was just a few blocks from our home.

I know that it’s hard to imagine this ever happening to you, your family, or your friends. It was hard to imagine it would happen to us, and it is still hard to believe that it is happening. But it did and it is.
 
I know that in college, people often think:

• I’m just driving across campus.
• I haven’t had that much to drink.
• The driver hasn’t had that much to drink.
• I need to get there now.
• Smoking marijuana won’t make it harder for me to drive.
• It’s not that dangerous to text and drive.

My family is asking that you sign a pledge. We are asking that you do 6 things that are remarkably simple.  The pledge is as follows:
 
I Promise:

1. Never to ride in a car without using a seatbelt.
2. Never to drive too fast, because where I’m going will be there, whether I’m five minutes early or 50 minutes late.
3. Never to drive after drinking, even the smallest amount, because I cannot understand how impaired I may be.
4. Never to drive after putting anything in my body that may limit my ability to think, understand and react.
5. Never to text while I drive, because the message is never more important than my life.
6. And perhaps hardest of all, to stop my friends when they try to do any of the above. I promise to take away their keys; call their parents; call a cab, wrestle them to the ground, if necessary. Whatever it takes.

 
Please sign this pledge for my family, for my brother. If not for us, then do it for your family, for your friends, for yourself. So you can graduate from college, because Adam won’t ever get to.
 
Download the pledge here.