April Vafeas of Tuscumbia did not know her son had received three tickets for driving without a seat belt until it was too late to try to correct the bad habit.

Vafeas, a stickler for safety, found the tickets after her son, T.J. Morgan, was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Tuscumbia in June 2022.

T.J., who had just turned 21, died when his Ford F-150 struck a pole after he fell asleep at the wheel. His girlfriend, Lexie Glass, a passenger in the truck, died a few days later.

Neither were wearing seat belts.

Vafeas found the seat belt violation tickets later in T.J.’s room, citations that had all been issued when T.J. was a minor.

“I can’t say that if I had known about those citations and if I had had the chance to correct him, that I could have changed anything. I can’t say that for sure. But I damned sure would have liked the opportunity to try to correct that,” Vafeas said.

Vafeas said even after one ticket, T.J. would have lost his driving privileges temporarily, a point she said T.J’s father would have agreed on.

“I would have taken him to school, picked him, up and he would not have had access to his vehicle for a while,” Vafeas said.

Rep. Jamie Kiel, R-Russellville, has a bill in the Legislature that would require police to notify parents when their minor child receives a ticket.

Kiel knows Vafeas and T.J.‘s father, Shane Morgan, from their days at Russellville High School in the 1990s.

Kiel got the idea for the bill after reading Vafeas’ post on Facebook about finding the tickets.

“I was just shocked that in the state of Alabama there’s no notice given to parents when a minor child is issued a traffic citation,” Vafeas said. “And I said this should be changed.

“And he saw the post because we’re Facebook friends. And he said, ‘Yeah, I can help you. Let’s do this.’”

Kiel said after talking to Vafeas he thought about his own three daughters.

“My oldest daughter, she’s driving my car, burning my gas, my insurance, I’m liable,” Kiel said. “So the question is, shouldn’t I know if she gets a traffic ticket in my car?

“Shouldn’t I know about it so that I can try to correct it, so that she doesn’t get another one? And possibly save her life if she’s driving too fast or doesn’t have a seat belt on?”

Kiel named his bill “T.J.’s Law.”

It says if a driver under 19 is cited for any traffic infraction, the police must make a reasonable effort to notify the driver’s emergency contact. The bill says a single phone call constitutes a reasonable effort.

Kiel said police have quick access to the emergency contact because it is listed in the driver’s license database.

“Literally all they have to do is dial that number,” Kiel said. “If nobody answers, they’re off the hook. If somebody answers, they leave a voice mail, whatever the case may be, that’s all they have to do.

“They don’t have to send a letter. They don’t have to mail anything. There doesn’t have to be any follow up. Nothing like that. We’re asking for one phone call.”

Vafeas said she was always adamant about car seats and booster seats when her kids were small and continued that emphasis on safety when T.J. got his driver’s license.

“I took that sort of thing very seriously, and when he started driving I would often, even as an adult, I would watch him pull out of the driveway and make sure he had his seatbelt on.

“So I had no idea that he had a habit – and obviously he had a habit of once he was out of my sight, taking that seat belt off.”

Vafeas said T.J. was a born outdoorsman.

“If he was crying as a baby, and I walked outside, he immediately stopped,” Vafeas said.

“He was always playing basketball or baseball. He played all the sports. He loved to hunt. He loved to fish. Kayak. He loved to go camping. He had an X box, but he rarely played it. He would much rather be outside.”

“And Lexie. We loved Lexie. She was like the sister my daughter never had. She was just 20 years old herself. Excellent athlete. Beautiful girl.”

Vafeas said she hopes a parental notification requirement could help prevent more heartbreaking accidents.

She said she’s talked to parents learned that their teens had received tickets only after warrants were issued for failure to appear in court.

“None of this changes what happened with my family,” Vafeas said. “I don’t get the opportunity to address that with my son. But I hope that there’s somebody that gets the opportunity to address something like this with their minor child and then can avoid a tragedy.”

Kiel’s bill was approved by a committee last week and could be up for a vote in the Alabama House as early as this week.

The legislative session resumes Tuesday.