Mom speaks out about her stepson's death during Distracted Driving Awareness month

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — April is distracted driving awareness month, and as part of our Driving Tampa Bay Forward series, we are committed to covering safety issues on our roadways.

A new study released by the Tampa Law firm Florin Roebig showed that distracted driving crashes decreased in 2024 compared to 2023, but the severity score of those crashes was higher.

That report shows a distracted driving crash happens every 35 minutes in the Tampa Bay region. Every 18 hours, someone is seriously injured, and every seven and a half days, someone dies.

Transportation officials said those numbers are something we all play a role in lowering.

Melissa Hamrick wants people to remember they are not just statistics.

“For me, it’s personal. My stepson, Anthony, was killed by a distracted driver. He was 19, one month short of his 20th birthday, on his way to school when a driver on their phone was distracted and rear-ended him.” Hamrick said.

Now Hamrick is working to spread awareness and put a stop to distracted driving to prevent other families from enduring the pain that hers did.

“Everyone has the potential to save a life if we all just make the choice,” Hamrick said.

I also spoke to one of the lawyers who conducted the study, Tommy Roebig. He wants people to remember the numbers in that report are not just statistics. They are friends, family, and neighbors.

“Each number is a person and each number is somebody’s child trying to get home from school or their mom or dad trying to get home, and some of these crashes are horrendous and life altering and tragic. So the message is put the phone down,” Roebig said.

Put the phone down and pay attention to the road is the message he wants you to remember. That report showed young drivers are responsible for 40% of distracted driving cases, so he said it is crucial for parents to set a good example and talk to their young drivers.