How Philip Lutzenkirchen died is not how his family says people should remember his life.
The 23-year-old star Auburn Tigers football tight end from Marietta was enjoying his post-playing career and partying with friends in LaGrange on June 29, 2014. They drunkenly got in a car, and the driver left the road. Philip was ejected, and he and the driver died. Of the two survivors, an unbuckled passenger was also ejected and nearly died.
Soon after, Philip’s family founded the Lutzie 43 Foundation in hopes of using his decisions — both the good and the poor — to inspire teens to drive safely.
“Quite frankly, he lost his life due to poor decisions. We never shy away from that. We are going to share that with these kids,” his father, Mike Lutzenkirchen, said at a recent Lutzie 43 Safe Driving Summit at St. Francis School in Milton. “He was not much older than the seniors that are going to be in this audience.”
Lutzenkirchen also leans on his son’s determination to help children with special needs and to be a great friend and teammate.
“He lived an incredibly short life. He gave his life to serve kids that were born with challenges,” he said.
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lutzie 43 is named after Philip’s nickname and Auburn jersey number. The foundation teaches drivers to pause and take 43 key seconds to make sure they are sober, buckled up and undistracted before getting behind the wheel. The summit in Milton was the organization’s 34th and the first of nine this year.
The foundation has a new partnership with the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. Its deputy director, Maurice Raines, was the Georgia State Patrol post commander in the region where Philip died. Raines spoke to the Lutzenkirchen family the day of the tragedy and began a friendship that has now bloomed into an effort to continue these safe driving summits.
All told, the events have reached approximately 24,000 students — 200 of whom attended the one at St. Francis on Feb. 11.
The summits typically include a student assembly and a heartfelt opening talk from Lutzenkirchen and other guests, such as Raines. Students then participate in breakout sessions to drive home the lesson. They spend time at a mock emergency room trauma center (through a partnership with Wellstar Health System) and a mock physical rehab center. They talk with the trucking industry (including FedEx) and with local law enforcement. The summits last five hours.
Speakers share real-life scenarios and coach students to not only behave better themselves but to raise the standard for their parents.
Lutzenkirchen’s next goal, after gaining support and dollars from government organizations, is to get more private companies to buy-in.
“We’re on a big quest this year to prove that the private sector — corporate America — will invest in road safety as a philanthropic cause or focus,” he said.
FedEx has helped with about a dozen of these summits and sent one of their safety road captains, Ray Besemer, to Milton from Binghamton, New York. Wellstar sent multiple people, including trauma surgeon Greg Coffman, who attended his first foundation event. Several police officers also came.
Expanding these summits by garnering more partnerships is how Lutzenkirchen finds another gear in this second decade after his son’s death. And Lutzie 43 aspires to make safer drivers out of not just teens, but also, with more corporate involvement, people of all ages.
Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com. Subscribe to the weekly “Gridlock Guy” newsletter for the column here.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
