Mother supports Kiel’s HB285
April Vafeas doesn’t know if she could have convinced her teenage son to use his vehicle’s seat belts, but she never knew about the three tickets he was issued until he and his girlfriend were killed in a single-vehicle crash.
The crash occurred on Woodward Avenue in Muscle Shoals when his pickup struck a large overhead directional sign pole.
“I don’t know if I could have done anything to convince him to wear a seatbelt,” Vafeas said. “It would have been nice to know about the citations and at least tried.”
Neither her son, Tyler Jeffrey Morgan, nor his girlfriend were wearing their seatbelts when the crash happened, Vafeas said.
Vafeas said she cleaned her son’s truck and there was plenty of room to have survived the crash.
“The cab was intact,” she said. “They, I think, had a very good chance to survive that crash if they had their seatbelts on.”
Unfortunately for Vafeas and other parents, Alabama law enforcement does not notify parents if an underage child is issued a ticket for a traffic violation.
House Bill 285 introduced by State Rep. Jamie Kiel, R-Russellville, could change that.
Kiel has introduced a bill that would require parents to be notified if their minor child receives a traffic citation.
He recently discussed the bill during a meeting of the NorthwestAlabamaCouncil of Local Governments Board of Directors.
The legislator said he attended high school with Vafeas and found her post on social media after her son’s crash in 2022.
He said the bill is very important to him and, he thinks, important to parents across the state.
Vafeas said she found three citations for failure to wear a seatbelt.
“They were all issued when he was 16 or 17,” Vafeas said. “I didn’t know that.”
At the time, Vafeas said, her son was driving one of her vehicles.
“I would have absolutely taken the keys,” she said. “Seatbelts are something I’ve always taken seriously.”
Vafeas said she’d watch her son through a dining room window get in his truck and put his seatbelt on.
“I didn’t know he had a habit of taking it off,” she said.
Vafeas said Kiel reached out to her after seeing her social media post.
She said Kiel said, “Let’s try to fix that.”
Vafeas said she’s spoken to a parent whose child received a speeding ticket at 16 and was arrested at 20 because it was never paid.
Two other parents found out about warrants issued for their children because they failed to appear in court, she said.
“It they knew a citation had been issued, they could have walked the kids through the process,” Vafeas said.
Vafeas said the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police is lobbying against the bill.
She said the opposition is due to the time it would take to contact parents whose minor children received a citation.
“The bill is pretty lenient,” Vafeas said. “They only have to make an attempt to make content.”
Association Director Adrian Bramblett said the association is OK with police making one attempt to make contact with the parent.
The bill was reported out of the House Committee on Children and Senior Advocacy on Feb. 26 and was read for a second time and placed on the House calendar on Feb. 27.
“This is all about honoring his life and his memory, and having some meaning come from this,” Vafeas said.
