Little
Flower senior’s death last year prompts legislative bill
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
PHILADELPHIA — April 2007 began on a high note for Lacey Gallagher.
A bright, popular senior at Little Flower High School and a member of
the school’s soccer team, she had already been accepted by Chestnut
Hill College for the fall term.
She was 18, and a full life seemed ahead of her. One of the final, joyous
high school milestones was her senior prom, on April 28 at the Benjamin
Franklin Hotel. Afterward, she and a group of friends headed to the Poconos
to finish their celebration.
There were seven of them in the 2001 Suzuki traveling up the Pennsylvania
Turnpike. It was a night of dense fog. Most people had stayed off the
roads. At 3 a.m. the Suzuki veered off the highway, struck the concrete
median and rolled over.
Most of the occupants were injured. Lacey, who was not wearing a seatbelt,
was killed. There were no drugs, no alcohol — just an inexperienced,
17-year-old driver, a crowded vehicle, terrible driving conditions, and
for her, no seatbelt.
Denise Gallagher and her husband, Frank, members of Holy Name of Jesus
Parish in the Fishtown section of the city, were left without their daughter.
“I was numb for a long time. Now it’s coming back to me,”
Lacey’s mother said. If she could turn back the clock, of course,
Denise Gallagher would tell Lacey not to make that trip.
“We all take so much for granted. We never realize we can be the
statistic,” she said. “Whenever Lacey was in the family car,
she always wore a seatbelt.”
The Gallagher family, which also includes Lacey’s older brother,
Sean, and younger sisters, Brianna and Alexis, is still mourning —
but determined that some good will come from their tragedy.
Along with their friends and Lacey’s friends, the Gallaghers are
urging changes in Pennsylvania laws concerning junior drivers’ licenses
(for those under 18). They want to limit the number of passengers in a
car driven by a minor, tighten driver-training requirements and raise
the required number of training hours as well as specifically include
night hours and inclement weather hours in that training.
Those proposed changes are included in Pennsylvania House Bill 163, introduced
by State Rep. Katherine Watson (R-Bucks), which is now before the Appropriations Committee.
The many friends of Lacey have also initiated a memorial scholarship fund
for students who wish to attend a Catholic school. As the scholarship
application explains, that way of remembering Lacey was chosen because
she valued her Catholic education, both at Holy Name of Jesus School and
Little Flower High School.
So far, more than $60,000 has been raised for the fund, and there are
a number of scholarship applications, Lacey’s mother said. She added
that several additional fundraisers are planned to support the fund.
For further information concerning the proposed bill and the Lacey Gallagher
Scholarship Fund, visit: www.thelaceyfund.org.
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.