Torrance High School junior Valentina d’Alessandro dreamed of becoming a fashion designer.

But that dream turned into a nightmare at 1:45 a.m. on Dec. 7, 2013, when the driver of the car she was riding in challenged a co-worker to a street race. He pounded the gas pedal, reaching 80 mph before running a red light and crashing, killing Valentina instantly.

Five months later her mother, Lili Trujillo Puckett, started the group Street Racing Kills, which educates youths and adults about the dangers of reckless driving, including street racing, complete with court-ordered diversion classes for offenders.

“She gave me this (nonprofit) and this way, I can be with her,” Trujillo Puckett said March 11. “Plus, I didn’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

She is one of two safe-driving activists from Southern California featured in a new documentary titled “Power Trip,” which was released March 10 on YouTube. The film spotlights the silent epidemic of driving deaths in the United States, where about 42,000 driving deaths occur a year, with about one-third partly attributed to unsafe speeds.

“Far more Americans died in road crashes than in all the wars combined,” said Myron Levin, who wrote and directed the film. “Yet, this is barely a blip on the public radar.”

His friend Michael Connelly, a successful crime novelist, helped fund the film and is listed as executive producer.

The film is narrated by Peter Coyote, who often narrates the popular documentaries made by Ken Burns about American history.

Levin, 76, a Pasadena resident, reported on the automotive industry and traffic safety for the Los Angeles Times from 1984 to 2008 and then for the nonprofit news group FairWarning, which he founded and which recently ceased operating.

Levin wanted his movie to wake up Americans to a problem he says is ignored.

“It doesn’t seem like there is much public recognition of the scale of the problem or how to address it,” he said.

Levin said traffic deaths in the U.S. rose by 30% from 2014 to 2022, the latest year for which statistics were available. Many say the numbers for 2023 and 2024, when released, will be down slightly but not far below the skyrocketing numbers in the past 10 to 15 years.

As part of the film’s promotion, Levin presents a statistic showing the United States with 12.24 fatalities from car crashes per every 100,000 people, well ahead of all developed countries.

In L.A., traffic fatalities climbed above 300 in 2022, marking the first time in 20 years the city has reached such a grim milestone.

That year the city had a record 309 traffic deaths, fueled mostly by pedestrian fatalities, which rose 19% from 2021, and cyclist deaths, which increased by 24%, according to a report released by the Los Angeles nonprofit Streets Are For Everyone, whose executive director, Damian Kevitt, also appears in the movie.

“I think it can be helpful if you can get it into enough people’s hands and make them think,” Kevitt said March 11. “As a society, we have become used to traffic violence as a part of life.”

The movie criticizes the automobile industry for putting production over health, making deaths from driving powerful sports cars a cost of doing business.

In 2017 Kevitt was riding his bicycle when a van crossed a double yellow line and smashed into him. Kevitt’s leg was crushed and he was dragged by the vehicle in the hit-and-run. He lost his right leg. He later formed Streets Are For Everyone and organized a die-in at Los Angeles City Hall to bring attention to rising traffic deaths of pedestrians and cyclists, often due to reckless drivers and poor enforcement.

“I have a right to cross the road without someone killing me,” Kevitt said.

The film shows commercials featuring drivers in sports cars traveling at fast speeds around hairpin curves, off bridges and through bodies of water.

“What happens when you make power your thing above everything. You decide fast is never fast enough,” the film’s narrator says over footage of cars barreling through streets at blinding speeds, often burning rubber.

In the film, several car manufacturers brag about their vehicles’ abilities to go fast. The film cites one BMW commercial that boasts a car that can travel at a top speed of 160 mph.

“There is no reason we should have vehicles on our roads capable of doing 140 mph,” Kevitt said.

The filmmaker said he and his producers reached out to a dozen automakers and they all declined or did not respond to their requests for interviews.

Levin agrees that studies fall short of proving that fast-car commercials, or movies featuring car stunts, drive people to speed on roads and highways. But he and others say these media blitzes can influence young male drivers to act irresponsibly.

Michael Brooks, executive director of The Center for Auto Safety, is quoted in the film saying there could be consequences.

“When behavior is exciting, we might want to imitate it. Young males take more risks and suffer the highest rate of crash deaths,” he said.

Meanwhile, Trujillo Puckett, who had just finished speaking at a seminar on the effects of reckless driving in Long Beach, said she often invites guests to speak at diversion classes who’ve lost loved ones to street racing, speeding drivers or hit-and-run collisions.

She has no trouble finding guest speakers and recently recruited a woman who lost her niece and a mother whose son was killed. She has even invited California Highway Patrol officers who have had to tell family members their loved one died in a traffic collision. During the classroom presentations, many show the emotion and difficulty of breaking the news.

“I love what (Levin) did. It is awesome,” Trujillo Puckett said. “I hope it is going to be of help.”

Levin said he received inquiries from a film distributor and he’s lining up interviews with podcasts. He wants to distribute copies of the film to school driver-education classes.

“I hope this film helps stimulate conversation about this preventable tragedy that happens all the time,” he said.

The film can be viewed on YouTube and at www.powertripfilm.com.