"It never leaves you": Helena driving advocate has lost multiple family members in three separate crashes
By Jordan Erb for The Independent Record
While failing to wear a seat belt may not cause a car crash, it is often the reason wrecks become fatal.
Tracie Kiesel of Helena knows this all too well.
In December 2006, Kiesel lost her son, Curtis, and his cousin, Jamie, in a single-car rollover on Canyon Ferry Road. Though Curtis was wearing his seat belt, Jamie was not, and the momentum of Jamie’s body crashing into Curtis killed him on impact. Alcohol was involved.
Four years later, Kiesel had to relive the same nightmare. This time, it was her daughter, Laura. Outside of Lincoln on a two-lane road, Laura sped up to pass another car, and was involved in a single-car rollover. Laura’s son, who was 11 months old at the time, survived.
Then, for the third time in eight years, Kiesel had to deal with the aftermath of another fatal wreck involving her family. In 2014, when a fire engine and a pickup truck collided head-on on Highway 12 between Helena and Townsend, Kiesel lost her niece and three great-nieces and nephews. The children's father was also killed in the crash.
Years after the wrecks, Kiesel, like others connected to fatal crashes, said the pain never subsides.
Years after the wrecks, Kiesel, like others connected to fatal crashes, said the pain never subsides.
It never leaves you. I wouldn’t say it gets easier,” Kiesel said. “I remember the first time someone told me it was going to get easier, and when I heard the word ‘easier,’ I nearly thought I was going to pass out. I was like, ‘How can someone tell me it’s going to get easier? I don’t know how that’s possible. It feels so terrible.’”
While failing to wear a seat belt may not cause a car crash, it is often the reason wrecks become fatal.
Tracie Kiesel of Helena knows this all too well.
In December 2006, Kiesel lost her son, Curtis, and his cousin, Jamie, in a single-car rollover on Canyon Ferry Road. Though Curtis was wearing his seat belt, Jamie was not, and the momentum of Jamie’s body crashing into Curtis killed him on impact. Alcohol was involved.
Four years later, Kiesel had to relive the same nightmare. This time, it was her daughter, Laura. Outside of Lincoln on a two-lane road, Laura sped up to pass another car, and was involved in a single-car rollover. Laura’s son, who was 11 months old at the time, survived.
Then, for the third time in eight years, Kiesel had to deal with the aftermath of another fatal wreck involving her family. In 2014, when a fire engine and a pickup truck collided head-on on Highway 12 between Helena and Townsend, Kiesel lost her niece and three great-nieces and nephews. The children's father was also killed in the crash.
Years after the wrecks, Kiesel, like others connected to fatal crashes, said the pain never subsides.
Tracie Kiesel decorates the roadside markers from the Canyon Ferry Road crash that took the lives of her son, Curtis, and his cousin, Jamie, back in 2006.
Thom Bridge, thom.bridge@helenair.com
It never leaves you. I wouldn’t say it gets easier,” Kiesel said. “I remember the first time someone told me it was going to get easier, and when I heard the word ‘easier,’ I nearly thought I was going to pass out. I was like, ‘How can someone tell me it’s going to get easier? I don’t know how that’s possible. It feels so terrible.’”
For years, Kiesel and her family would go somewhere else to preoccupy themselves during birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Halloween or other holidays. Though that’s still much the same today, their grandson, now 8 1/2, occupies most of their attention during the holidays. According to Kiesel, he makes it easier.
As the coordinator of Tri-County Buckle Up Montana and secretary and coordinator for the Lewis and Clark County DUI task force, Kiesel said her relationships with law enforcement officers and other first responders have also been helpful.
“It’s super therapeutic to be around (my grandson), and it’s super therapeutic to be around my friends who do this for a living,” Kiesel said. “I trust them and we’ve become good friends, and I love them. They have a hard job. I am only one in two pieces of what they see every day. They are great people, and they have a hard job. It’s important for people to know that.”
Kiesel took on her advocacy role with Tri-County Buckle Up Montana a year before the first wreck, and she sees her involvement as something of a godsend. Had she not been in the position during any of the crashes, she said the personal toll would have been more than she could bear.
Kiesel talks seat belts with Helena High School students last week in their driver's education class. She took on her advocacy role with Tri-County Buckle Up Montana a year before her son was killed in a wreck, and she sees her involvement as something of a godsend. Had she not been in the position during that crash and those that followed, she said the personal toll would have been more than she could bear.
Thom Bridge, thom.bridge@helenair.com
But the relationships she’s formed have helped her through the coping process.
“If I hadn’t already been involved with the program and friends with most of the first responders and law enforcement in this area and been as close as I was to them, I would probably be in Warm Springs, Montana, today,” Kiesel said. “Our first responders and law enforcement are so good at what they do; they really guide you through the process.”
Helping families maneuver life after the loss of a loved one is part of the job, though never an easy one. Kristin Banchero, public information officer for the Montana Highway Patrol, watches officers grapple with this after every fatal wreck.
“I think it’s probably one of the hardest parts of the job, to have to tell a loved one that their family member is deceased,” Banchero said. “The tragedy is unimaginable.”
And statistics show that happens all too often in Lewis and Clark, Jefferson and Broadwater counties.
Records from the Montana Department of Justice show 77 people died in 63 crashes in the tri-county area from 2013-2017. More than half of the fatal crashes involved drug or alcohol use, and more than half of the people who died in vehicles equipped with seat belts were either not wearing one or wearing one incorrectly.
On the 12-year anniversary of the fatal crash, Tracie Kiesel visits the scene off Canyon Ferry Road where her son, Curtis, and his cousin, Jamie, died after the car they were in went off the road and rolled.
Thom Bridge, thom.bridge@helenair.com
The Montana Highway Patrol, Montana Department of Transportation, first responders and families of those lost in fatal wrecks all emphasized that they are more than just numbers. Each fatality is the loss of a family member and community member and comes with far-reaching effects.
“It comes down to people,” said Janet Kenny, supervisor of state highway traffic safety section of the Montana Department of Transportation. “(They are) not numbers. (They are) people. When we lose a person, the family has lost that person, the community has lost that person, and all the potential that that person had. It’s so far-reaching, and it has such an impact.”
Kiesel continues to work in her role educating about safe driving and the importance of using a seat belt and not driving under the influence. She delights in the time spent with her grandson, whom she splits custody of with his father. Now she sees him on the weekends, during summer break, and during days off from school. They work through questions about his mother as they come.
“For the last couple of years he’s been really curious about it,” Kiesel said. “He’s seen her pictures around and has asked about her and asked about Curtis. His dad does a better job of getting through that explanation; it usually takes me only a couple of seconds and then I fall apart trying to tell him. ... He knows, and he knows where it happened. We go there a lot. He loves to fish, and where it happened there’s a nice fishing spot, so my other daughter takes him up there and they fish and hang out.”