Rock & Hip Hop Music Benefit

Four popular and up-and-coming St. Louis bands will headline a special music benefit to draw attention to the dangers of driving while tired. The concert will be held from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at the iconic Blueberry Hill restaurant and music club, 6504 Delmar Blvd. in University City. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door. Advance tickets are sold online at www.tyredd.org. Among the bands that will perform:

Nite Owl — Voted Best Hip Hop Artist in the 2012 Riverfront Times Music Awards

Black Sky Parade — local rock band

Concrete Alibi — local rock band

Vega Heartbreak, featuring Bradd Young — local hip hop brothers*

    *Vega Heartbreak’s Cards Rally Song went viral for Cardinals World Series in 2011.

The inaugural benefit concert is for TyREDD, a nonprofit organization started by the mother of a Parkway South High School teen, Tyler Warne, who died in 2010 after falling asleep at the wheel of his car while driving on I-255 in the middle of the afternoon. Since his death, Tyler’s mother, Kerrie Warne, established TyREDD (pronounced “tired”), Tyler Raising Education/Awareness for Driving Drowsy, and has dedicated her time to educating teens and parents about the dangers of driving while tired.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year. According to a National Sleep Foundation survey, 60 percent of drivers have driven while feeling drowsy, with more than one-third, or 103 million people admitting they had briefly fallen asleep at the wheel. High risk times for driving while drowsy include midnight to 6 a.m. and the mid-afternoon hours from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m.

 “Tyler’s accident occurred on a bright sunny afternoon on the last weekday of spring break,” says Kerrie. “No alcohol or drugs were involved. The contributing factor to his accident and death was fatigue. I’m trying to tell my story and raise awareness of the dangers of drowsy driving so no other family will go through what mine went through.”

Over the past two years, Warne has made numerous presentations about the dangers of driving while tired to high school groups, youth organizations, Monsanto, and Sanford Brown College. Last year, she was invited to speak at the New England Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (NETSA) Conference held in Boxborough, MA and American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA) National Conference held in Appleton, WI.

In July 2013 Warne also is scheduled to speak at the National Student Safety Program (NSSP)- Teen Leadership Conference in Portland Maine. The benefit concert will help fund more educational programs for TyREDD as well as help fund TyREDD’s next step of being a formalized 501c(3) nonprofit organization.

“To have so many people and local bands come together to support this cause is so gratifying,” says Warne. “I hope many people will attend to hear some of the best music in St. Louis and also to learn about the dangers of drowsy driving.”

More information about TyREDD can be found at www.tyredd.org.