The #1 killer that has no "awareness"

Everywhere I turn I see awareness ribbons for Breast Cancer, Autism, Prostate Cancer, you name it, it has a campaign behind it. Yet the #1 killer of children and the most preventable of them all is completely ignored - automobile accidents. I found the following stats while trying (unsuccessfully) to find some kind of online support group for people who have lost loved ones in a car crash...

In 2003 117 people each day were killed in crashes, one every 12 minutes. To give a sense of scale to this problem, 117 people per day is as if a nearly full 737 airplane crashed each day with no survivors.

So many people are killed in automobile accidents, so many families have lost loved ones due to this epidemic, yet there are no support groups, no awareness ribbons, nothing. It's insane. Sometimes I feel like we have made so much progress with getting Kyle's story out there, the youtube video, the news interviews, the Foundation. Then I realize there is SO much more that needs to be done, it's overwhelming. This is the biggest killer in our nation and no one seems to even care. Everyone wants to find a cure for breast cancer but nobody seems concerned about preventing the tens of thousands of deaths due to reckless drivers. Why does everyone worry about getting cancer or heart disease but then think that a fatal car accident could never happen to them. It's the most likely thing to kill you and your children of them all!

*When I say "nobody", I mean the general society as whole. I know there are people who DO care greatly - probably you if you are reading this blog :) and just wish everyone could feel that way and the media would put a huge spotlight on this enormous problem like they have with breast cancer (which kills LESS people each year than car accidents by the way).

There are so many things that could be done, better driver training programs, more frequent testing for driver's license renewal, TV ad campaigns about the importance of car seats, higher testing standards for car seats, etc. It's just so frustrating to have lost a child at the hands of the biggest killer in the country and not even be able to find a simple support group or awareness ribbon for it but be constantly bombarded with those things for every other "cause" under the sun. Maybe I should just make my own. Sigh.