On Feb. 10, 2023, I received a phone call that changed the course of my life. Our 19-year-old son Jackson had been in a car accident in Florida. The details were murky, but when I tried to call Jackson, he didn’t answer his phone. Jackson’s twin brother, Chase, and I immediately drove to Tallahassee, Florida, from our home in Marietta, anxiety mounting with every mile we drove.
We arrived at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, where we were told that Jackson was on life support. We held on to any shred of hope we could grasp, but there was nothing left that could be done.
On Feb. 13, Jackson passed away from the injuries he sustained in the accident. It all felt surreal.
In the days after Jackson’s death, there was an investigation into the accident. Jackson was a passenger in the vehicle. Everyone had been wearing seat belts, and the driver had been driving under the speed limit because of a rainstorm. However, the car’s tires had virtually no tread, which caused the vehicle to hydroplane into an 18-wheeler.
When someone you love dies, you question why and wonder where to go next. Jackson has four other siblings, and together we grieved and tried to make sense of everything. We found some solace in the fact that Jackson’s organs saved the lives of three people, but we felt there was more to be done.
Tire safety became a topic discussed among our family and friends. We constantly reminded people to check their tires and gave many of our relatives air pumps for Christmas last year. We noticed tire safety was a message that seemed to be missing from a lot of the driver safety narratives.
We’ve all seen the campaigns about the importance of wearing a seat belt, not drinking and driving and not texting and driving. Tire safety and maintenance haven’t received the same attention.
As a family, we knew we wanted to create a foundation to honor Jackson’s memory, and tire safety felt like a place where we could do some good. We created the Road Ready Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to tire safety. We decided to focus on drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 because they are statistically more likely to be involved in an accident due to a lack of experience with driving.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Surveys by Michelin North America showed many teen drivers had never checked their tires, and they didn’t know how. The Road Ready Foundation’s programs make tire maintenance approachable using the three “I’s”: inspect the tread, inflate and check tire pressure and identify damage or wear.
Once you look into the statistics on tire safety, the numbers are shocking. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, tires are the cause of 35% of vehicle fault accidents. Tires with insufficient tread require more distance to come to a stop, and that distance is even more pronounced in the rain or snow.
It became more evident as we launched our initial programs that even adults weren’t fully aware of the difference tires can make. When we make appearances at automotive-focused events like Caffeine and Octane in Kennesaw, we still find that people admit to driving on unsafe tires.
When we launched the nonprofit, we started from square one. We researched tire safety and the statistics around it. We started contacting tire installation groups, tire manufacturers and government entities that represent tire manufacturers and safety. We told them Jackson’s story, and the response has been more than we could have imagined. Through this outreach, the Road Ready Foundation has forged partnerships with Airmoto, State Farm, AAA and Tire Discounters (which recently acquired local chain Butler Tires & Wheels).
Butler Tires & Wheels and Tire Discounters encourage all teen drivers and parents to take advantage of their free tire safety inspections during the week of Oct. 20-26. They will check air pressure, tread depth and tire age.
AAA is hosting the Just Drive teen driver safety event on Oct. 26 at the Fulton County Innovation Academy. The Road Ready Foundation will be there to share the message about tire safety with teens and their parents. We’ll be handing out key chains with a tread depth measurement tool and will have a display about tire maintenance.
It’s not easy to share the story of our family’s tragedy, but if we can save a life through our educational initiatives, we prevent other families from experiencing the same heartache.
Alex Bebiak is the founder of the Road Ready Foundation, a nonprofit focused on educating drivers of all ages about the importance of tire safety.
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