KNOXVILLE,
Tenn. (WVLT) - An East Tennessee father is on a mission
to make sure what happened to his daughter doesn’t
happen to anyone else. Steve Eimers spoke with WVLT News
on the work he has done worldwide to help keep the roads
safe.
“My why is to rob America’s streets of future guardrail victims and get these problems fixed before they kill someone,” Eimers said.
It’s something no parent should go through, losing their child. Eimer’s daughter Hannah, drove off the road, hit an improperly installed guardrail and then she died at just 17 years old. The passenger riding in the car with her at the time, walked away without a scratch.
“I found a whole sale problems in all of our safety barriers not just in Tennessee, we do better than most states,” said Eimers.
Nationwide investigators found many guardrails were improperly installed, with something as minor as missing bolts could mean the difference in life or death.
“People inspecting every linier foot of guardrails in their state for insulation errors, for frankensteined, for damaged equipment and getting it fixed,” Eimers said.
He started a
YouTube channel to spread awareness of the
dangers on our roads that so many are unaware
of.
He told WVLT News, “the YouTube has helped just give me a platform to take those concerns directly to the American people the worldwide audience its grown to over 80 million views 200,000 subscribers.”
Eimers said people from all over ask him to investigate guardrails in their area, no matter where it may be, he goes to check it out.
“New South Wales, Australia, there’s people reaching out to me from all over the world. They’re saying what is wrong and I’m often finding unbolted guardrails, untreated guardrail ends underlying issues, but for that issue this outcome would’ve been totally different,” said Eimers.
He’s even
inspiring younger kids to notice things and make
change in their community.
“I was at TRB. I had a little guy named Mason who saw some of my YouTube videos, just 11-years-old he’s on the autism spectrum and he’s started a TikTok channel. It was ‘Mason the Guardrail kid’. He has built up a thousand followers with millions of views. He gets a lot of guardrails replaced in Pennsylvania, using google street view and reporting it to TDOT,” said Eimers.
Eimers works with the department of transportation in dozens of states, Missouri, Utah, Georgia, Virginia, just to name a few and of course including Tennessee to make change happen. He does this so no family has to go through what his did.
He said his goal is not finished, “So that’s one of my goals its to engage in DC leadership and making sure that we fully transition to the highest test standard that we if were going to pay for something with federal aid dollars its going to be easy to install properly.”
Eimers works with The Tennessee Department of Transportation or TDOT and said he monitors the roads everyday and will continue to until this is not an issue.