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Lake Country students to hear warning on dangers of distracted/drunk driving

Kevin Brooks lost a friend because he drove drunk; now spreads message to high school students
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Kevin Brooks is coming to speak to Lake Country students about the dangers of distracted driving next week.

George Elliot secondary school students will hear about real-life consequences of making bad decisions this week as ICBC’s road safety speaker Kevin Brooks will appear at the Lake Country school as part of a tour around the Southern Interior to talk to high school students about taking risks behind the wheel.

Car crashes remain the number one preventable cause of death for youth in B.C. and distracted driving is the leading factor in youth crashes resulting in injuries or death.

What started as a typical booze fueled Saturday night for the skateboarding, snowboarding, hockey playing Brooks quickly turned tragic with a poor choice. He left a party, intoxicated and driving in excessive speeds. He was not alone. Beside him sat his passenger and childhood hockey friend Brendon, who was killed.

From his wheelchair, Brooks will tell the story of how he lost his friend one Saturday night while driving drunk in Surrey over a decade ago. Brooks has appeared at more than 1,000 high schools across North America and has thousands of youth followers on his blog, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter sites.

Since his accident, Brooks has been an ICBC Road Safety Speaker and has headlined provincial, state and national youth safety conferences in both Canada and the U.S. He's made numerous media appearances in print, radio and TV, and in 2007 he was a special guest on the Tyra Banks show.

Having lost dear friends to both violence and suicide in recent years, Brook's story continues to evolve and now includes such important teen issues as depression, suicide and self harming, violence and bullying and many other important issues teenagers face in their day to day lives.