PULSE Magazine | May 2019 Issue

“Click it or Ticket” Press Conference Honoring the Kailee Mills Foundation The Kailee Mills Foundation educates the public on the importance of seat belt use while encouraging and inspiring communities to protect themselves and their passengers by always wearing their seat belt. On Wednesday, May 1st the Click it or Ticket press conference was held at Republic Square Park in Austin. This year’s event highlighted the work of the Kailee Mills Foundation. David Mills, CEO of the Kailee Mills Foundation, conveyed his family’s heartbreaking story. “In the blink of an eye, our 16-year-old daughter was gone. She had just left our home with her friends to go to a Halloween party. She was riding in the backseat, and only traveling a mile away from our home to a friend's house. They were only a few blocks away from our home when the car she was riding in veered off the road. The car rolled over, Kailee was ejected from the backseat of the car, and died instantly. Her three friends walked away with only minor cuts and bruises. Kailee was the only one in the car not wearing a seat belt. Just seconds before the crash, Kailee removed her seat belt to slide over in the backseat and take a selfie with her friend. It was that split second that shattered the hearts of so many. Car crashes happen more often than we are consciously aware of. You hear they weren't wearing their seat belt and died. See or read the news. But it always seems outside of your reality. Something that happens to other people. Why wouldn't they be wearing their seat belt? Doesn't everyone wear one? We never thought it would happen to us—to our daughter. We know that if she was wearing her seat belt, she'd still be here. Instead, the girl we called our “ray of sunshine”, is gone.”

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