New ICBC road safety speaker reaching out to Lower Mainland students ahead of grad season

May 09, 2019

A new ICBC road safety speaker, Markita Kaulius, has joined ICBC's speakers visiting Lower Mainland high schools to share their personal stories with students about risky driving and the importance of making smart decisions.

Markita's 22 year-old daughter, Kassandra, was coming home from coaching a softball game in Surrey when she was t-boned by an impaired driver and killed in 2011. The impaired driver had been celebrating hockey playoffs and as a result of their choices, spent two years in jail.

Markita is the founder of Families for Justice Society, a non-profit support group for parents who have lost a child or loved one to an impaired driver. Markita shares her experience with students to show what a family and community goes through when a loved one is killed by an impaired driver.

Every year in the Lower Mainland, 11 youth are killed and 7,300 are injured in 20,000 crashes.*

The latest figures show that vehicle crashes represent the greatest number of unintentional deaths for youth (age 15 to 18).**

ICBC is committed to supporting youth in developing strong decision-making skills on the road to help prevent crashes and save lives. Over the past two decades, ICBC's road safety speakers have been sharing their stories with approximately 50,000 B.C. high school students every year.

Media are invited to these upcoming presentations  in the Lower Mainland.

Please contact ICBC road safety coordinators, Leanne Cassap at 604-789-7483 or Don Miller, 604-302-4099, to confirm events 24 hours prior to attending, as dates and times are subject to change. Please check in at the school upon arriving for a presentation.

Facts:*

• Contributing factors for youth injury crashes involve distracted driving (33 per cent), speed (17 per cent) and impaired driving (six per cent).

• Contributing factors for youth fatal crashes involve speed (34 per cent), distracted driving (26 per cent) and impaired driving (17 per cent).

• Young male drivers are involved in crashes almost three times more often than young female drivers, particularly when speed or impairment is involved.

• Twenty-three per cent of speeding drivers involved in crashes, resulting in injury or death, were between the ages of 16 and 21 years.

*Police-reported data based on the five-year average from 2013 to 2017. Youth are defined as age 16 to 21.

**Based on BC Coroner data from 2016.

Media contact:

Lindsay Wilkins
604-982-4759