KCRG covered the story:
It's the number one killer of American teenagers: car crashes. Now Iowa is trying to cut the number of deaths by making those teens buckle up. Wednesday, Governor Culver signed a bill today making more people buckle up, more specifically, making more passengers in the back seat buckle up.
One eastern Iowa mother says her daughter would just be wrapping up her junior year of high school if she had been wearing a seat belt in another family's SUV. Andrea Bockenstedt was only 13-years-old when she died during a trip with a friend's family to Adventureland in Des Moines. The Strawberry Point teenager was thrown out of the back seat of an SUV.
"I truly believe if she had a seat belt on, she would be with us here today,” says Nancy Bockenstedt.
Nancy says the two adults in the front seat were buckled up, and that three children in the back were not. Andrea and her friend's younger brother were killed.
"You don't want to be in my family mourning the loss of a child. It was a senseless death,” says Nancy.
Andrea's mom is relieved Iowa will soon have tougher seat belt laws for backseat riders. Right now, everyone in the back has to be in some sort of safety restraint until they turn 11. Starting July 1, those passengers have to buckle up until their 18th birthday.