Police officers hear personal talk on deadly distracted driving

LaFAYETTE — In 2007, an Illinois State Patrol trooper was barreling down a highway at 126 mph while emailing on his computer and talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone. He lost control of his car and careened across the median and into another car, killing two sisters, ages 18 and 13, on impact. It was the day after Thanksgiving and the girls were on their way home from visiting their father. The officer suffered an injury to a leg.

Waiting for her daughters and wondering why she hadn’t heard from them was Kimberly Schlau. Early in the evening, officers knocked on her door to tell her that her girls were dead. They were killed by an officer who had been in seven previous accidents, two while on duty, one that had cost the state $1.7 million dollars.

Most people would understand if Schlau was bitter, if she harbored anger against the institutions that had looked the other way as an officer repeatedly proved he was unfit to drive a patrol car and possibly any car. But Schlau has turned her family’s tragedy into a campaign to make sure this sort of thing does not happen to others, including police officers.

When Collegedale, Tenn., Assistant Police Chief James Hardeman attended the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association in St. Louis, Mo., in both 2017 and 2018 and heard Schlau share her story, he knew he wanted to bring her to his town.

Schlau has been working as an advocate for safe driving practices for first responders, speaking at hundreds of conferences and law enforcement agencies, as well as schools, since 2010.

Hardeman invited area law enforcement agencies from both Tennessee and Georgia to attend Schlau’s June 25 presentation in Collegedale. Fort Oglethorpe Police Chief Mike Helton sent a third of his officers. Several officers and deputies from the Ringgold Police Department and the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Department also attended, as did some from Walker County.