Even after four years, Georgia State employee Eva Hill still believes that the greatest loss she will ever experience is the loss of her son.
“I have lost my mother, I have lost my father and I have lost a brother all by natural causes, and I can tell you losing a child is the ultimate pain of a parent,” said Eva Hill, the administrative coordinator for Georgia State’s Office of Disability Services.
On Oct. 16, 2010, Hill’s youngest child, Malcolm Omari Hill, died in a car crash.
The accident was caused by distracted driving.
According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis in 2010; 30,196 car fatalities were due to distracted driving.
The night that Omari died, the driver of the car reportedly answered a phone call that caused him to eventually lose control of the car. Out of the four passengers in the car that night, only the two rear seat passengers, both of whom were not wearing seat belts, who died. The driver and the front seat passenger both had their seat belts on and survived.
According to police reports, Hill’s son as well as the other rear seat passenger would have survived if they had worn their seat belts.
These facts, along with the grief that Hill felt, are what motivated her and her husband Toni Hill to start the Malcom Omari Hill Scholarship Fund in 2011.
“When Omari passed, so that we would not allow his memory to go unknown, we decided ‘let’s do something now,’” Hill explained. “We believe everyone needs instruction before they get behind the wheel.”
The Hills provide opportunities for young Georgia residents to take free instructional safe driving classes and offer scholarships that range from $200 to $1000.
Although Hill said that to some people the scholarship reward isn’t a lot, she believes that the message is the most important thing to take away from it.
“I’ll be talking on the phone while driving, then I’ll realize it and then get off the phone, and that shows you how easy it is because that was my son who died,” Hill said.
“Just think about the people who haven’t had any fatalities; they’re probably more inclined to text or talk on the phone.”
By partnering with private owners of safe driving schools, Hill has sponsored about 200 students to take classes that educate them and make them aware of the dangers of distracted driving.
“There is a myth that if you are in the back seat there is no need for a seat belt. We want to make sure that people know that this is not true.”
The Hills have also given scholarships to students at Brown Middle School where her son was a tutor, mentor and volunteer assistant basketball coach.
“Omari was working with AmeriCorps programs. He was housed here at GSU working with different students from high schools and he was a tutor at Brown. I feel that his biggest mark was left at the schools, so that’s why we like to give back there.”
Although Hill said that the scholarship has yet to be given to a Georgia State students, it might be because many students don’t know about it.
“There hasn’t been any acknowledgement of the scholarship at GSU, but I encourage all students to apply for the scholarship.”
All information about the Malcolm Omari Hill Scholarship Fund can be found online at www.omarischolarship.org.
Thanks Endia Mathews. If you are still at Georgia State University, I thank you for this article. I am no longer employed there, but the Malcolm Omari Hill Scholarship & Safe Driving Classes is truly growing. We have a schedule of classes for each month in 2016.
Take care!