When trying to avoid a collision, 17-year-old Nicole Tompkins overcorrected and lost control at 65 mph, causing the vehicle to roll, killing her 7-year-old brother, Jarod Tompkins.

At a daylong meeting of transportation officials Wednesday in Linthicum, Cliff and Barbie Tompkins publicly recounted their experience of losing their son. “If we don?t teach our children to drive correctly and respond to emergencies, we or they may lose something bigger: our lives,” said Cliff Tompkins, a Calvert County resident.