blog home Community Outreach Chesterfield County remembers fatal texting-while-driving crash

Chesterfield County remembers fatal texting-while-driving crash

By Beth Gibson on April 30, 2021

By Beth Gibson, Director of Community Outreach

At GibsonSingleton Virginia Injury Attorneys, we consider distracted driving one of the greatest menaces on our roads today. We see this casual act of negligence put our neighbors in danger almost every day. When we launched our first “Texts=Wrecks” Campaign in 2018, we wanted to educate our community about how to avoid distracted driving. But today, we also want to highlight its real-world consequences and how other neighbors are also working to stop distracted driving.

In February of 2019, a dump truck driver was texting a Valentine’s Day message to his girlfriend before being involved in a collision that killed 56-year-old Karen Giles. This tragic event was a harsh reminder of the dangers of distracted driving and how even a single message can cost someone her life.

To fight back, the Chesterfield County Police Department launched a safety campaign in March to remind everyone of the lives lost in texting-while-driving crashes. If you drove through Chesterfield, you may have seen billboards with “In memory of,” reminding us of those who have died in distracted driving accidents. Karen Giles was one such life remembered during the campaign, along with Austin Greathouse, Noah Page, and Carla Smith.

There is no good excuse for texting while driving. If you need to make a call or send a text, simply pull over and deal with whatever you have to before you get back on the road. It could save a life. For more tips, read our latest “Texts=Wrecks” blog or contact me at [email protected].