The Zero Fatalities campaign is honoring the 27 teens who lost their lives on Utah roads in 2018. The reason for the memoriam is written on their website: “As we honor these lives, may their memories help us drive more carefully so out stories never have to end to soon.”
One set of parents who spoke at the memoriam were the Stouts, whose 13-year-old son Baylor died from injuries he sustained in a car accident.
If there’s one thing you need to know about Baylor Stout, it’s that he loves pandas… a lot. And he’s kind of a panda himself: a big kid—standing at nearly six feet by the age of 13—but soft.
“He was truly the heart and soul of our family,” said Staci Stout, Baylor’s mother. “He was the person that you would hear in the house. He was larger than life.”
On July 22, 2018, Baylor and his father woke up early to drive back from the family cabin.
“He wanted to come back with me so I wouldn’t have to drive back by myself or go to church by myself,” said Marty Stout. “And we got up and left fairly early at 7:30. He likes to sleep in, especially on weekends, so that was a sacrifice for him to get up, and I think that’s just the kind of person he was.”
As they were driving around a corner, a silver minivan swerved into their lane, hitting their truck head on. The truck flipped then rolled down a hill.
Marty said, “He didn’t ever regain consciousness.”
Baylor is one of the 27 teens who died in car accidents in Utah last year. Some of them were drowsy, some without seatbelts, some were victims of bad weathers. But all of them were taken too soon.
The driver who hit Baylor? “She was driving impaired and had THC in her system,” said Marty.
By sharing their story as part of the Zero Fatalities Teen Memoriam, the Stouts hope drivers will make better decisions behind the wheel and become more aware of impairment caused by drugs, specifically marijuana.
“The penalties related to driving under the influence of drugs is not the same as driving under the influence of alcohol,” said Cindy.
The driver was sentences to seven months in jail, but the Stouts were left with a lifetime of mourning. But after Baylor’s passing, the family experienced a tender mercy where they learned the meaning of his name.
“The meaning behind his name was ‘treasured one.’ And so, it held a lot of meaning for me because Baylor was truly a treasure to our family.”
