Parents of Joseph Teater, killed in 2004 crash with cell-phone using driver, to speak at U.S. Distracted Driving Summit

From mlive.com:

GRAND RAPIDS — The parents of 12-year-old Joseph Teater, killed in a 2004 crash blamed on a driver talking on a cell phone, will speak today at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Distracted Driving Summit in Washington, D.C.
David and Judy Teater will speak at a noon press conference on the first day of the summit.
Since the death of their son, a seventh-grader at Forest Hills Northern Middle School, the Spring Lake couple have worked to improve road safety. David Teater closed his automotive consulting business, and is now a spokesman for the National Safety Council and senior director of Transportation Initiatives, advocating for improvements in education, legislation and technology regarding cell-phone use while driving.


The aftermath of the 2004 crash that killed Joseph Teater, 12.

Judy Teater has testified before the state House Transportation Committee earlier this year in favor of measures to ban cell-phone use and text messaging while driving.
She was driving when her Chevrolet Suburban was struck by a Hummer H-2. The other driver, Holly Smeckert, 26, who pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, was distracted by a cell-phone conversation when she drove through a red light at Knapp Street NE and East Beltline Avenue.
Studies have shown cell-phone users are four times as likely to wind up on a crash as drivers not on the phone, and have found motorists on the phone as impaired as drunken drivers.