She was the face and voice of Buckle Up for a Successful Season. Her poignantly emotional speech about the importance of safety belt usage remains one of the most important pieces of the Buckle Up for a Successful Season program.

She embodied the essence of the entire program – students impacting otherstudents to get them to understand the importance of buckling up.

Sadly, Annie Guccione, the 16-year-old junior from Canal Winchester High School who championed the message of Buckle Up for a Successful Season for us all died November 7, 2004.

On March 7, 2001, a crash claimed the life of her sister, Tasha, and left Annie struggling for life. She suffered extensive head injuries and broken bones in the crash, and emergency workers needed to perform an emergency tracheotomy at the scene just to keep her alive. Her injuries left Annie without the ability to speak or walk, and doctors believed she would not survive for a year.

She proved everyone wrong, by regaining her walking and speech, and surviving for an amazing three and a half years.

“While Annie’s story continues to elicit tears from many, she has left us a legacy to carry forward. The impact she had on so many young people with her passionate message to get fellow teen to buckle up cannot be measured,” Colonel Paul McClellan said.

Annie became an outspoken advocate of safety belts because had she not been buckle up, she would have been killed in the crash. Sgt. Kevin Dillard, who investigated the crash while a trooper at the Circleville Post, noted “were it not for safety belts, the crash would have initially been a triple-fatality.”

Annie often spoke to students and other teens about the importance of wearing a safety belt, and in so doing was an ambassador for the life-saving importance of safety belts.

“You don’t realize how fast your life could be taken away from you, or how fast your life could be turned upside down,” Annie said on August 23 to fellow Canal Winchester High School students at the Buckle Up for a Successful Season kick-off event.

“Every time you get into a car ask yourself these questions: Do I want to live to be a day older? Do I want to walk the same tomorrow? Do I want to talk tomorrow? Do I want to remember today? These are just a few things you could lose due to not wearing a seatbelt.” (Annie’s complete speech can be viewed here.)

In honor of Annie’s extensive work with her peers to get teens to wear their safety belt, the statewide Annie Guccione Buckle Up for a Successful Season Award was established by the Patrol, in partnerships with the OSHAA and Honda of America Mfg., Inc., to recognize high schools and students who actively promote teen safety belt use.

No doubt everyone who met Annie is saddened by her death, but we can honor the legacy she has left and the work she is still doing, by continuing our efforts to help teens work with each other to buckle up through the Buckle Up for a Successful Season program.

Annie’s journal entry from November 2, 2004, five days before her passing, from an assignment about leaving a legacy, and her feelings about being too small or big enough to make a difference:

“When I’m gone, the one thing that I want people to remember me as is a girl that tried her best and let nothing get in her way! Hopefully other people will look up to me and use me as a role model/inspiration.

I hope so dearly that me talking to so many people and making them feel the same way I do will make them understand certain things can happen. To anyone!

I’ve hoped continuously that maybe I’ve possibly prevented something from occurring.

I am not sure if I have encouraged anyone to do the right thing, although I wish I have. I realize that life works in mysterious ways, and you don’t always get what you want.

As for being too small or big enough to make a difference, I feel big enough. But if only one person listens, that’s one person I’ve helped!”