Car Accidents
Working From Home Reveals Traffic Danger and Sparks a Friendship
A peculiar thing happened during the Covid-19 pandemic. As more time was spent handling casework from home, Boulton Law Group’s legal team started paying closer attention to the traffic patterns in each of their respective neighborhoods.
And they didn’t like what they were seeing.
In fact, it was during one of the team’s work-from-home days that attorney Matt Boulton was talking with his paralegal when she remarked, “Wow! Two delivery trucks just flew by my house!” It reminded Matt that he had recently noticed vehicles driving above the speed limit in his neighborhood, too.
After that call, Matt decided to monitor neighborhood traffic more closely, and it quickly became apparent that his paralegal’s earlier comment and his own observations were not a coincidence.
More and more people were traveling through local neighborhoods at rates far above the posted speed limit: cars, trucks, motorcycles, delivery vans (Prime, UPS, FedEx), etc. It was all types of vehicles, and it was happening everywhere.
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Free Case ReviewOf course, this is not to suggest that drivers were obeying neighborhood speed limits before the pandemic, it just meant that we had traditionally been working from the office and were not able to witness it with such regularity.
Having handled residential car accident cases in the past, and knowing that these incidents largely involve children, Matt did not want to see this type of case become a growing trend. After all, for every incident or story that the news covers, there are several other accidents and “close-calls” that never make it into the public eye.
As Matt and his team continued to search for signals that speeding in residential areas might indeed be on the rise, they found a long-standing organization in Omaha, Nebraska that had been leading the charge for traffic awareness, education, and behavioral change in local neighborhoods across the United States.
Intuitively named, Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 (KKAD25) is a non-profit whose mission is to make streets safer for all who walk, cycle, play, drive, and ride. Their goal is to put an end to deaths and injuries caused by all manner of unsafe driving behaviors. They do this by educating and actively engaging citizens in a common commitment to create safer streets for the benefit of all, beginning right in people’s own neighborhoods.
Founded by Executive Director Tom Everson over 22 years ago in 1998, KKAD25 is viewed as pioneer in the space, forming a number of impressive partnerships with groups like Ford and Geico, while also evolving to include a variety of safety campaigns that supplement the neighborhood speeding initiative, including:
In addition to educating young people on the factors often associated with automobile accidents and tragedy, KKAD25 has also built a network for grieving families, offering various levels of support for those who have lost a child or loved one to a traffic incident.
Matt’s initial reaction to what he saw from KKAD25’s website was one of admiration, to say the least. Shortly after, he reached out to Tom to learn more about the advocacy group and discuss ways his firm could potentially bring more attention to the organization’s mission.
“What struck me about Tom during our conversation was his authenticity. I assumed he likely started KKAD25 due to a personal loss, and that wasn’t the case. He had noticed many years ago what a lot of us are just now seeing because of the home-based changes brought on by Covid: People are driving too fast in neighborhoods! KKAD25 exists because he identified a problem and acted. He simply cares, and I’m excited to be lending our support.”
Tom confirmed Matt’s impression during the call by saying, “What Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 is about is preserving relationships. We all come home to somebody, somebody comes home to us. First and foremost, we all want these relationships to be preserved. Our mission is all about reminding ourselves that the best reasons to practice safe driving, cycling, and pedestrian behaviors is to do so in honor of those we love and those who love us.”
Simply put, the newfound friendship between a group like KKAD25 and Boulton Law Group helps to create a true circle of victim advocacy, as Tom’s organization is largely devoted to the frontlines of prevention, while Matt’s firm is available to people when the unthinkable does occur.
With this in mind, Matt and his legal team will continue to be dedicated to helping people through once-in-a-lifetime tragedies, however, Boulton Law Group is also making a newfound commitment to spotlight and support visionary groups like KKAD25.
Going forward, Boulton Law Group will use its social media channels and blog to announce KKAD25 updates as well as opportunities for local residents to become involved should they have any interest
Author Matt Boulton
