METRO And Kailee Mills Foundation Announce Partnership

HOUSTON, TX — Houston METRO and the Kailee Mills Foundation will hold a press conference Monday morning announcing a partnership they hope will raise awareness about the importance of safe teen driving and seat belt usage.

METRO President and CEO Tom Lambert, MPD Chief Vera Bumpers, and David and Wendy Mills will announce the partnership at the METRO Park n Ride, at 1604 West Bellfort at 10 a.m.

Kailee Mills was a 16-year-old Klein Collins High School student and aspiring Texas A&M Aggie, boasting a 4.3 GPA, who loved volunteering and hanging out with her friends.

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But that all ended on Oct. 28, 2017, when Kailee, who was on her way to a Halloween party with friends, was riding in the backseat and unbuckled her seat belt to take a selfie.

Merely seconds later, the car veered off the roadway and rolled, ejecting the promising teenager and instantly ending her life.

To honor their daughters memory and raise awareness of the importance of seat belt use, David and Wendy Mills formed the Kailee Mills Foundation, and set up a Facebook page.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens. According to the Houston-Galveston Area Council, young driver crashes represent almost 18 percent of all crashes within the Houston-area region. In 2016 alone, there were more than 30,000 crashes involving young drivers. Of those, 579 resulted in serious injury and 62 were fatal.

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