Justice4Katie

Imagine one day you are saying goodbye to your child, telling them you love them and to get home safely. Now imagine you are driving and come across a horrible car wreck and the thought goes through your mind, could that be them? You put it out of your mind and just hope and pray your child made it through that stretch of road and is home safe and sound.

You get a call from the state patrol telling you that your child was in a serious car accident, was taken to the hospital, and you needed to make sure all family got there immediately. Think of all the horrific thoughts that would go through your mind; is this real, what happened, how did it happen, how bad is it really? This is the most helpless feeling you could experience, paralyzing you to the ‘need to know’ but the complete fear of actually finding out. Then the horrific realization when you arrive at the hospital to find your beautiful child that you just saw a couple hours ago, has been helplessly killed by a careless and distracted truck driver who had no thought for others on the road that day.

This was my reality on September 6, 2017 when a distracted driver took my daughter’s life. This driver was speeding, his semi-truck side dumper was thousands of pounds overweight, and he carelessly slammed into the back of my daughter’s car after she was at a complete stop in rush hour traffic for over 5 seconds. this man made a choice to do something other than pay full attention to his driving, and that action cost my daughter her life. Further, it took away any hope of normality for my life and the rest of my family’s lives forever. Katie Burkey, was just 22 years old and had her entire future ahead of her. Katie had just graduated from the University of Minnesota, she had just moved into her very own place and proudly adopted a rescue dog named Winnie. How could someone’s carelessness so easily take all of that away and what will be done about it? I didn’t realize how badly flawed, and in dire need of change, the laws were in relation to a driver taking another life by their own distraction… until it happened to us.

Driving a vehicle that has the capacity to kill another human being requires the simplest task… paying attention. Simply put, the lack of doing that by a driver took my precious Katie. It also took her ability to have a future and devastatingly changed out family dynamic forever.

The consequences for not adhering to hands free laws must have suitable weight to encourage change. This is so far overdue. If something was done about this problem years ago there’s a chance Katie and many other helpless victims would be here today. One thing I have learned throughout this agonizing ordeal is that this is an increasingly disturbing trend that desperately needs action.

It’s important to understand that it can happen to you and your family. If we can start adequately addressing this avoidable epidemic, maybe fewer tragedies will occur. As a society, we need to realize we could easily be the next family affected. Change needs to happen and it needs to start now. How many more innocent people need to be killed before the understanding of this epidemic is real?

Justice4Katie is a non-profit movement dedicated to making changes, creating awareness, and continuing to honor and remember our beloved Katie Burkey.  Distracted driving is avoidable and has the ability to destroy lives. Your help to our non-profit will support our efforts to educate future drivers and continue our push forward to make the roads safer for all of us!

JUSTICE4KATIE URGES ALL DRIVERS TO DO ONE SIMPLE THING - PAY ATTENTION AND JUST DRIVE!