Torrance High School junior Valentina d’Alessandro dreamed of becoming a fashion designer.
But that dream turned into a nightmare at 1:45 a.m. on Dec. 7, 2013, when the driver of the car she was riding in challenged a co-worker to a street race. He pounded the gas pedal, reaching 80 mph before running a red light and crashing, killing Valentina instantly.
Five months later her mom, Lili Trujillo Puckett, started the group Street Racing Kills, which educates youth and adults about the dangers of reckless driving, including street racing, complete with court-ordered diversion classes for offenders.
“She gave me this (nonprofit) and this way, I can be with her. Plus, I didn’t want this to happen to anyone else,” said Trujillo Puckett on March 11.
She is one of two safe-driving activists from Southern California featured in a new documentary entitled “Power Trip,” released on March 10 on YouTube. The movie spotlights the silent epidemic of 42,000 driving deaths a year in the United States, with about one-third partly attributed to unsafe speeds.
“Far more Americans died in road crashes than in all the wars combined. Yet, this is barely a blip on the public radar,” said Myron Levin, who wrote and directed the film. His friend, successful crime novelist Michael Connelly, helped fund the film and is listed as executive producer.
The film is narrated by Peter Coyote, who often narrates the popular documentaries made by Ken Burns about American historical events.
Levin, 76, a Pasadena resident, reported on the auto industry and traffic safety for the Los Angeles Times from 1984 to 2008, then for the nonprofit news group FairWarning he founded that recently ceased operating.
He wanted his movie to wake up Americans about a problem he says is ignored. “It doesn’t seem like there is much public recognition of the scale of the problem or how to address it,” he said.
Traffic deaths in the United States have risen by 30% from 2014 to 2022, Levin said, the latest year of statistics available, although many say the numbers will be down slightly in 2023 and 2024 but not far below the skyrocketing numbers in the last 10 to 15 years.
As part of the film’s promotion, Levin presents a statistic showing the United States with 12.24 fatalities from car crashes per 100,000 population, well ahead of all developed countries.
In the city of Los Angeles, traffic fatalities climbed above 300 in 2022, marking the first time in 20 years the city has reached such a grim milestone.
The city had a record 309 traffic deaths, fueled mostly by pedestrian fatalities which rose 19% over 2021, and cyclist deaths that increased by 24% over last year, according to a report released by the Los Angeles nonprofit Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE), whose Executive Director Damian Kevitt also appears in the movie.
“I think it can be helpful if you can get it into enough people’s hands and make them think,” Kevitt said on March 11. “As a society, we have become used to traffic violence as a part of life.”
The movie criticizes the automobile industry for putting production over health, making deaths from driving powerful sports cars a cost of doing business.
On Feb. 17, 2017, Kevitt was riding his bicycle when a van crossed a double yellow line and smashed into him. Kevitt’s leg was crushed and he was dragged by the vehicle driven by a hit-and-run driver. He lost his right leg. He later formed SAFE and organized a die-in at Los Angeles City Hall to bring attention to rising traffic deaths of pedestrians and cyclists, often due to reckless drivers and poor enforcement.
“I have a right to cross the road without someone killing me,” Kevitt said in a recent interview.
The movie shows several commercials of drivers in featured sports cars traveling at extremely fast speeds around hairpin curves, off bridges, and even through streams and water reservoirs.
“What happens when you make power your thing above everything. You decide fast is never fast enough,” says the film’s narrator, over footage of car commercials featuring the sights and sounds of fast cars barreling through streets at blinding speeds, often burning rubber.
In the film, several car manufacturers brag about vehicles’ ability to go fast, even more than 100 mph. The film cites one BMW commercial that boasts the car can travel at a top speed of 160 mph.
“There is no reason we should have vehicles on our roads capable of doing 140 mph,” Kevitt said.
The filmmaker said he and his producers reached out to a dozen automakers and they all declined or did not respond to their requests for interviews.
Levin agrees that studies fall short of proving that fast-car commercials, or movies featuring car stunts, literally drive people to speed on roads and highways. But he and others say these media blitzes can influence young male drivers to act irresponsibly.
Michael Brooks, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety is quoted in the film saying there could be consequences. “When behavior is exciting, we might want to imitate it. Young males take more risks and suffer the highest rate of crash deaths,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trujillo Puckett, who had just finished speaking at a seminar on the effects of reckless driving in Long Beach, said she often invites guests to speak at diversion classes who’ve lost loved ones to street racing, speeding drivers, or hit-and-run collisions.
She has no trouble finding guest speakers and recently recruited a woman who lost her niece and a mother whose son was killed. She even invited CHP officers who had to tell the family their loved one died in a traffic collision. During the classroom presentations, many show the emotion and difficulty of breaking the news.
“I love what (Levin) did. It is awesome,” said Trujillo Puckett. “I hope it is going to be of help.”
Levin said he received inquiries from a film distributor. And he’s lining up interviews with podcasts. He wants to distribute copies of the film to school driver education classes.
“I hope this film helps stimulate conversation about this preventable tragedy that happens all the time,” he said.
The film can be viewed on YouTube and at www.powertripfilm.com.