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Grieving family acts to aid young drivers

Simulators are a way of remembering Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Shawnee High sophomore Chris Stegmuller , 15, practices driving on one of the simulators donated by Patricia and Dan Fitzpatrick. Their son Ryan, 18, died in the crash of the SUV he was driving. (Ron Tarver / Staff)
Shawnee High sophomore Chris Stegmuller , 15, practices driving on one of the simulators donated by Patricia and Dan Fitzpatrick. Their son Ryan, 18, died in the crash of the SUV he was driving. (Ron Tarver / Staff)Read more

Although his graduation portrait hangs at Shawnee High School, Ryan Fitzpatrick never got to walk down the commencement aisle with his fellow seniors. He never made it to the prom. He will never play college football.

On April 26, less than mile from his Medford home, Fitzpatrick was killed when he lost control of the SUV he was driving, possibly swerving to avoid a deer. He had turned 18 just the month before.

Within days of his death, the grief-racked Fitzpatrick family went into action. They launched a fund-raising campaign to buy driving simulators to help other young people prepare for the hazards of the road.

Shawnee now has two simulators, and a third is slated for delivery later this month. A fourth is planned. The hope is to raise money to buy simulators for Lenape Regional High School District's three other general schools.

"That's what we're trying to do," said Dan Fitzpatrick, Ryan's father. "To keep any other family from going through this."

Motor-vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teenagers, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available, more than 4,200 people ages 15 to 19 were killed in accidents, and nearly 400,000 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for crash-related injuries.

Most states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, have some form of graduated licensing - known to reduce accidents involving young drivers. Next year in New Jersey, tougher new requirements for novice drivers will go into effect, including greater limits on passengers and a vehicle decal identifying new drivers. Teen auto deaths in the Garden State decreased in 2008 for the third consecutive year.

In Pennsylvania, crashes and fatalities involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers have declined overall since graduated licensing took effect in 1999.

But across the nation, youth driver training and regulation vary greatly. And, in the face of budget constraints and past negative reports, many school districts over the last couple of decades have discontinued or limited driver education.

Out of this uneven landscape, families like the Fitzpatricks have become part of a fellowship none would have chosen - one propelled by loss and the desire to channel grief into a higher purpose: They have become advocates for better driver's ed.

In Georgia, for example, Alan Brown of Cartersville campaigned for the driver's education-boosting Joshua's Law, named for his son who, at 17, was killed in a single-car crash in 2003. Among the law's provisions, a portion of the state's traffic violation fines is supposed to go toward driver education. Some has been spent on simulators like the ones at Shawnee.

In New York, another parent, Penney Gentile of Cooperstown, whose son Chris, 18, died in a crash in 2007, and Lindsay Rowley, one of Chris' schoolmates, won passage of a bill to review driver's ed statewide. They also got legislative funding for simulators at Cooperstown High School.

"When a parent loses a child, they have to try to make some sense," said Van Flanigan, vice president of Virtual Driver Interactive (VDI), which manufactures the simulators that are at Shawnee and other schools. She has worked with several of the parent advocates.

"I know of at least six or eight people who have made this their life's work, and I'm sure there are dozens and dozens," she said.

Simulators, of course, are just one aspect of driver education. They don't take the place of real driving. Yet while the technology hasn't been conclusively proven to reduce accidents, many road-safety experts advocate simulators to help prepare novice drivers.

Early this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, along with good-driving organizations, released recommended driver-education standards that included using simulators to enhance instruction.

Driver's ed in the 21st century, however, doesn't come cheap - $18,000 for a new model of the kind of simulator now at Shawnee.

Dan Fitzpatrick, who has an air-purification company, said VDI told him he could get a model used for demonstrations for $9,500.

Of course, the money had to be raised. A big boost came from the New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Co., the family's insurer. The company gave $10,600 toward one of the first simulators. Altogether the fund has raised $30,000, but the Fitzpatricks have a way to go before they reach their goal of simulators for all the Lenape Regional schools.

So far, the machines are going over big at Shawnee, where all sophomores take driver's ed but don't get road practice. That was dropped several years ago due to fiscal constraints, according to principal Matthew Campbell.

One day last week, students used the simulators to practice obeying traffic signals, making turns, and driving in various conditions.

Jon Lashkevich, 16, tried snow driving.

"You can see how you slide, and the brakes don't work as easy," he said.

Chris Stegmuller, 15, sim-drove in the rain and got a sense of driving under the influence of alcohol, including the police stop.

"They put in crazy drivers, and you have to slow down and let people cross the street," said Lindsay Dougherty, 15.

"Everything the machine is doing is installing good habits," said Corey Jones, 16.

It won't even let students start driving if they haven't fastened their seat belts - something Dan Fitzpatrick said could have saved Ryan's life.

Patricia Fitzpatrick, a nurse, said her son had had his driver's license less than six months. As it was, she made him wait a year from when he got his permit for that added maturity.

But the crash happened anyway. Dan Fitzpatrick said Ryan had just driven a friend home. The road markings indicated he might have been trying to avoid a deer, his father said. The 1999 Ford Expedition, which the Fitzpatricks bought because they thought there was safety in size, hit a tree, and Ryan was ejected.

The Shawnee community took the death hard. A popular student, Ryan was a defensive tackle on the football team. He had been recruited to play for Delaware Valley College in Doylestown. His older brother, Dan, 20, attends Drexel University.

The Fitzpatricks want current and future Shawnee students to stay mindful of what happened to Ryan. Recently, commemorative plaques were installed on the simulators. On one is a message from Dan and Patricia Fitzpatrick, titled "Remembering Ryan":

"If remembering what happened to Ryan helps you to make the right decisions when driving, then just maybe he will have helped to save your life."

To Donate

Contributions to the Ryan Fitzpatrick Memorial Fund may be submitted to TD Bank, 517 Stokes Rd., Medford, N.J. 08055.EndText