APPLETON, Wis. (WFRV) – After losing her daughter in a car crash, an Appleton woman has made it her mission to prevent other families from having to go through a similar tragedy.
Back in 2019, Alyson O’Hearn’s daughter Mackenzie died in a car crash at the age of 17.
“She lost her life in a snowstorm, on her way home from work, she lost control of her vehicle,” O’Hearn told Local 5 News on Wednesday afternoon. “She was a beautiful soul, and she’s not here to make her impact on the world, so I’m going to do that for her.”
In memory of her daughter, O’Hearn launched a nonprofit last year called ‘Safe Driving Matters.’ Through education and advocacy, she spreads the message to young people about the importance of safe driving behaviors.
One of the major things she does through the nonprofit is going to local school districts to tell her story.
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“Providing a perspective on what happens to your loved ones if something happens to you,” O’Hearn said. “It puts a reality spin on it when we ask them who would your best friend call if something happened to you.”
In collaboration with Outagamie County court commissioner Brian Figy, she’s also developed a court diversion program. She said Figy expressed to her that many of the young people that go through traffic court just have their parents pay their tickets and don’t learn anything from their mistake.
They felt like there was a better way to handle this. The court diversion program give some young people who go through traffic court an opportunity to take a driving safety class at Fox Valley Technical College in lieu of paying for their traffic ticket and getting points added to their driving record.
Law enforcement officials teach these classes.
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“I feel like Kenzie is with me every day; she’s the reason that I do this,” said O’Hearn. “I think she would be so proud that I’m turning tragedy into something that is really helping others.”
O’Hearn said she just entered into a partnership with Children’s Wisconsin that will help her connect with additional school districts to spread her message. She said she’s also trying to raise money to purchase distracted driving simulators that they can use in their education programming.
“I wake up every day knowing that I spend my time trying to make a difference, and it’s just an incredible feeling,” she told Local 5 News. “I think it’s really important that we take this loss and turn it into helping others and preventing tragedies like this from happening in the future.”
For more information about ‘Safe Driving Matters,’ please click here.
