is a grassroots organization committed to changing driver behavior and attitudes toward speeding. FACES4 stands for Families Against Chronic Excessive Speed. The number four represents the age of FACES4 president and co-founder Michael Donovan’s grandson when he died in a crash as a result of a chronic speeder. The organization was created in 2005 with the purpose of preventing deaths and injuries due to aggressive driving and excessive speeding by informing the public of the dangers of speeding through education and community involvement.
Community involvement is vital to our success. We conduct school presentations during driver’s education classes and assemblies, participate in mock crash reenactments and provide display booths at health and safety fairs. We also participate in parades, National Night Out events, safety checks with police departments and distribute palm cards. Palm cards are a powerful way of personalizing the severe outcomes of speeding by showing the “faces” of teens and young adults who have been killed by aggressive drivers. “Facts on Speeding” printed on the back of the card reinforce our message.
We partner with communities and agencies assisting in their objective to save lives one person, one palm card and one presentation at a time. We have received overwhelming positive responses from our school and law enforcement agency partners. The success of FACES4 is a result of continually developing and maintaining partnerships. With the help of our partners, we have reached thousands of people from October 2006 through May 2010. We have given presentations to 59,789 students and have reached 29,290 teens and adults through high school safety fairs and various other community events. We have also distributed over 350,000 palm cards to law enforcement agencies for issuance throughout Illinois. We hope to continue this trend and build upon it for years to come.
We thank all individuals and organizations who have supported our journey.
REMEMBER:
Slow down.
Speed limits are a maximum, not a target.
Maintain speed limits both day and night.
Set realistic journey times.
Don’t be pressured by tailgaters to speed.
And above all else remember:
REDUCED SPEED SAVES LIVES!
PALM CARD TESTIMONIAL
My name is Natalie and I recently got a ticket for speeding. The officer was very nice. He gave me a palm card about FACES4 and I have been touched by this organization. It reminded me of how precious life is and how easily an act like speeding can take it away.
I was once oblivious to the trauma speeding can cause. I thought the warnings against speeding were merely tactics to scare new teen drivers. Then I visited the FACES4 (www.faces4.org) website listed on the palm card and saw the stories of people who lost loved ones much like me. I am not happy that I have to pay the speeding ticket but I am thankful that is all I have to pay because I was driving way too fast and could have easily paid much more than the price of a ticket.
I feel fortunate that the officer gave me the FACES4 palm card because if I had only received the ticket, I most likely would have continued speeding. The palm card and website connected speeding and tragedy in a way that my driver’s education class didn’t. The words on the palm card touched me. The pictures on the website shocked me and I cried because the stories of the horrible crashes with people’s names, pictures and dates of death sent a message about the very real and heartbreaking effects of speeding.
I know there are teenagers who will never take the consequences of speeding seriously and then there are those like me, who will. It is all because the FACES4 palm card caught my attention. FACES4 may not catch everyone’s attention and may not save everyone’s life, but it forever changed the way I view speeding. I truly believe this organization changed and perhaps even saved my life. I encourage everyone to visit www.faces4.org, read the stories, look at the pictures and make the decision to slow down and arrive alive.
Debbie also worked in the Crash Information Section as Data Input Operator to Location Analyst and then as a Crash Data Analyst. As Location Analyst, Debbie worked with all nine district offices verifying exact crash locations on cases without enough information. She updated location books with new information by having location coders enter their listings. Relationships with co-workers were important to Debbie. She strived to make work easier and more effective for others by doing simple things like ensuring the location tool was as accurate and user-friendly as possible. As a Crash Data Analyst, she corrected and retrieved crash data for requests from a variety of users. She also worked on the yearly publication Crash Facts and Statistics.