Meet Gabe Hurley

The Official Driving School team is committed to community outreach efforts to connect with teens and families about the importance of safe driving. Our new OFFICIAL Talks program is an initiative that partners with schools and teen-based organizations to provide young drivers with important information about the responsibilities that come with being on the road. This program is available to any interested Michigan community virtually or in person at NO COST. As part of our advocacy and outreach, our team recently had a chance to sit down with a safe driving advocate Gabe Hurley to learn more about how reckless teen driving has had a significant impact on the trajectory of his life. This inspirational individual has an incredibly important message for all teen drivers and their parents. Gabe is pleased to partner with us through our OFFICIAL Talks program to share his story as a cautionary tale about the avoidable consequences of distracted or reckless teen driving.

In June of 2009, Gabe was the victim of a terrible car crash caused by a distracted teen driver in Edison, New Jersey. This car crash left him severely injured and completely blind. The car crash was caused by a group of teen drivers speeding and racing each other on the roads. A 17 year-old driver hit a bridge, dislodging a piece of metal from his car that crashed into Gabe’s windshield and struck him in the face.

Gabe’s life was completely transformed by the act of reckless teen drivers and he has endured a litany of medical procedures over the past 12 years as a result of the car crash.

Gabe and his family recently moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gabe has made it his mission to speak to new drivers because this incident and others like them are totally preventable.  Gabe has spoken about his accident to over 100,00 students about his experience to date.

Along with our team of safe driving experts, Gabe is available to speak to groups of Michigan teens in person or virtually through our new OFFICIAL Talks program. For more information about our OFFICIAL TalksS program, please get in touch with us here.

We encourage you to take a moment to watch our conversation with Gabe and discuss with your teen driver.