Distracted Driving Awareness Month: Family hoping tragedy can help lead to change

"His name is Bean Dip and he matters."

That’s what Eddie and Kelly Montalvo called their 21-year-old son Benjamin, who loved riding his bike and was killed while riding.

"Besides being under the influence, Bean's killer had exchanged 24 texts in the six minutes surrounding the crash," said Kelly Montalvo. "Then there's a gap of 59 seconds in which he stopped texting which was the exact minute that he struck and killed him."

According to the Auto Club, there are distracted driving accidents all day long.

"Over 3,500 people are killed annually in accidents involving a distracted driver. That's an average of about 10 people killed each day," said Auto Club president and CEO Greg Backley. 

That's in addition to the over 360,000 injured in the past three years, according to AAA.

It is with crash videos and empty chairs remembering victims of distracted driving crashes like Benjamin the Auto Club kicked off National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The tribute also featured messages from speakers like Jasmine Ortega from the California Department of Insurance who says, "It only takes a moment to turn a routine trip into tragedy. Let's be real. We live in a world designed to distract us."

"If you're driving 55 miles an hour and you take your eyes off the road for just 5 seconds... it’s like traveling the length of a football field blindfolded," Backley said.

"Hands on the wheel. Not on your device and eye on the road not on your phone," Ortega said.

"Please think what you do before you get into a car and do the right thing," Eddie Montalvo said.

"Put your phone down! No call or text is worth a life," Kelly Montalvo adds.