| A Mother's Crusade: Family Circle Article, April 18, 2000 |
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"I had just bought Morgan her 'big girl' bed and decorated her room with eyelet bedding and purple gingham," recalls Patti Pena. "We'd recently moved into our dream house, and I kept thinking how lucky I was and how this really was the beginning of the rest of our lives." Only it wasn't. On November 3, 1999, Morgan Lee Pena, age 2 1/2 died. The effervescent towhead with a delicious smile and hazel eyes, who devoured books and sang with delight, succumbed to injuries sustained when the Jeep driven by her mother was struck by a man who ran a stop sign because "he was distracted while using his cell phone," says Patti, 29.
"My husband and I are cell phone users," she adds, "but before this happened to us, we'd never even read the owner's manual that came with our phone." Only days after their daughter's death, the couple took the manual out of its wrapping. "On the first page it says, 'Do not use a handheld phone while driving; park the vehicle first'," says Patti. Only three days before the accident, Patti had quit her job as the director of a nursery school to be with Morgan full time. Now, she says, she has a new job: to make people aware that talk can sometimes kill. After Morgan's death, Patti Pena made a choice to go public with her family's pain to put a human face on a cell phone bill pending before the Pennsylvania state legislature. "I could have retreated, done nothing," she says. "But I had these images of Morgan in my head, and I knew I just had to make a difference." So Patti called her state senator, Joe Conti, who, two months before the accident, had introduced Senate Bill 1085, which would prohibit the use of handheld mobile phones while driving, except to make emergency and good Samaritan calls. Now the keeper of studies and information related to cell phone use and the increased rate of traffic accidents, Patti and her husband, Robert, are coping with a terrible loss and crusading for a cause. "In one study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the risk of a collision while using a cellular phone while driving was four times higher than the risk of a collision when a cellular phone was not being used," says Patti. "Fourteen countries have already banned the use of handheld phones while a vehicle is in motion," she continues, "but in this country, only three places have passed similar ordinances." But Patti is determined. "I won't ever give this up. Never!" she says emotionally. Morgan's tiny tyke table still sits in the Penas' living room. "The day before Morgan died, we went grocery shopping," recalls Patti. "She was singing in the store, and I remember thinking, She's such a happy child." Those memories keep the melancholy manageable and fortify Patti to keep fighting. "Don't get me wrong," she says, "I think cell phones are a great safety tool. I have one and keep it in the glove compartment. But if I ever needed to use it, I'd pull over." On the back of Patti's car is a bumper sticker that says, DRIVE NOW, TALK LATER. For more info on cell phone safety and the Penas' crusade: www.morganlee.org. |