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Police captain’s traffic-safety message becomes personal after son’s death

Montgomery Police Capt. Tom Didone has made it his mission to help high school seniors get through May and June without tragedy. Part of what motivates him: He lost a teenager to a crash. 

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May 23, 2012

"It only takes a second to take a life," Montgomery County Police Capt. Tom Didone tells high school students. His son Ryan died in 2008. He was a passenger in a car of teens going to a Burger King after a Christian youth group meeting when the driver, traveling at a high rate of speed, lost control on a winding road in Damascus and hit a tree.

Tracy A. Woodward / The Washington Post

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