The Safety Tech That Could Have Saved Her Son

Celeste Bowens-Martin: I want people to pay attention. I want companies to be more accountable for their drivers, their equipment. When you buy the new equipment, get the sensor on there that lets you know that it’s an object in the road.

David Craig – Host: I’m David Craig, a board-certified truck accident attorney who’s dedicated over 40 years to helping the victims of devastating semi-truck, large truck, and other commercial motor vehicle wrecks. When the stakes are high, you need the information to make the right decision. After tragedy strikes, many people don’t know where to begin or what questions to ask. It is my goal to empower you with the knowledge and resources you need to help you understand your rights and to protect you and your family. This is After the Crash.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of After the Crash. Today, it’s my honor and privilege to have Celeste Bowens-Martin as our guest. Celeste is a wonderful human being and somebody who I know, who I consider a friend, someone I’ve represented over the years, who’s always been willing to help me out when I needed help out. Not only is she a client and a great person, but she’s also somebody who has a CDL. She’s somebody who drives professionally. And so we’ve had occasion over the years to talk about her experience as a driver of buses all over this country. But today, unfortunately, what we’re talking about is something a little more serious. So let’s start off by me welcoming you, Celeste. Thank you for agreeing to be on this episode of After the Crash.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Thank you for having me.

David Craig – Host: And so Celeste had the misfortune her son, Isaiah, was killed in a wreck involving a commercial motor vehicle back in March of 2025. And what Celeste wants to do is make people aware so that maybe someone else doesn’t have to go through what she’s going through. So tell me a little bit about what’s your goal, what you hope that we can share with people that maybe just in general, what do you hope to gain from us talking about this topic? Because it’s got to be a tough topic for you to talk about.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: It is. It really, truly is. I want people to pay attention. I want companies to be more accountable for their drivers, their equipment. When you buy the new equipment, get the sensor on there that lets you know that it’s an object in the road.

David Craig – Host: So let’s start off by talking about Isaiah. So tell us a little bit about Isaiah. Who was Isaiah?

Celeste Bowens-Martin: My pride. Isaiah was 35. He had no kids. He was a gamer. He liked to live stream. His handle name for gaming was Twilight Deacon. He was my firstborn, and he worked with children that was in the system that had their hard times, and they had been sent to the juvenile. And so they would send him to the halfway houses for kids and things like that. But the sweetest, give you the shirt off his back, try to help everybody. He was loved. He was well-loved. He was my best friend, my travel buddy, my day one. So it’s been a struggle, and I miss him. And I miss him a lot, but I’m trying.

David Craig – Host: Well, Isaiah I know was living out of state and was moving back to be with you back in March of 2025, right?

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Yes. He had moved to Illinois, and he said, “Mom, I’m going to give it a try.” And I was like, “You know you grown. You ain’t got no kids.” So he had moved to Illinois with his girlfriend, and he was coming back because he didn’t like it. And he was on the highway, coming back. And that highway that he was on, which was 74, at that time in the morning between 2:00 and I’d say between 1:00 and 4:00, there’s nothing on the road but trucks. I know because I done been on that road many a day trying to get to one of those colleges in Urbana or one of the schools. And they hauling. I mean, they running because there’s nothing there. So I already know.

Isaiah wasn’t a truck driver. He wanted to learn how to drive and drive the bus and drive the trucks and stuff. And I was going to start showing him how to drive. But I know he got scared. I said, “I know a truck came over on him. And he panicked, and he over-corrected himself.” And he wound up crossing over in the median and over to the other side heading east in a westbound lane.

David Craig – Host: So he was on his way back to Indianapolis. So he was heading towards Indianapolis on I-74 over, and he was still over in Illinois. And all we know for sure is that he crossed the median. And he ended up in the opposite lane of travel, and his car was completely stopped. I mean, completely. Somehow through the process of going through the median, it just killed the car. And he was just sitting there. We don’t know why or how.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: No.

David Craig – Host: We just know. Because he won’t be able to tell us.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: He can’t tell us.

David Craig – Host: But we know that something happened that caused him to go through the median and end up on the opposite lane of travel. But that’s exactly why these tractor trailers that have the crash avoidance software in there, that’s exactly why they have it. That’s why they sell it. That’s why so that when something like this happens, these trucks have the ability to have a sensor and a camera, and they can tell there’s something in their path. And they will alert the driver, and if the driver doesn’t do anything, then these trucks will stop themselves.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Yeah. They will slow they self down because some of our buses had them.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. And so they have the technology and the new equipment. And this was a 2024 Freightliner, if I remember right.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Yes. Yes, sir.

David Craig – Host: And so it was a 2024 Freightliner, so they sold with that truck. They sold, they had the ability, they had the equipment, they had the technology there. And the company, for whatever reason, which we all know is just because they wanted to save a little bit of money, they chose not to add that system to this particular Freightliner. So this Freightliner did not have the crash avoidance technology. And as a result, this driver hit your son and killed him on I-74, right?

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Yes, sir.

David Craig – Host: So Celeste is a professional bus driver. She hauls folks all over the country. And does your bus have that type of software equipment in it?

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Yes, we had a couple of buses that had that software in it when they bought the buses. And then I know we got a new bus. We got a brand new bus, but I haven’t drove it yet. So I don’t know if it has it on there or not. But yeah, and it has saved me many a times.

David Craig – Host: So you’re familiar with how the technology works?

Celeste Bowens-Martin: When I say slow you down, you got something coming from behind you, and it just goes because we have vans too that does that. And it’ll drop you all the way down to 55. And you in the 70, and you got a semi behind you. And it’s like, “It going to get me killed, but it’ll still keep me from hitting somebody else.” It’s a good thing, and it’s a bad thing. But I’d rather have it on there to make sure that we’re aware, aware of it, that there’s an object. Because it gives you, if I’m not mistaken, it goes a long distance. And then the closer you get to it, it beeps to let you know, “Okay, when you going to move over? When you going to move over?”

David Craig – Host: Right. So it detects stationary objects directly in its path, and it gives the driver alerts. And then the active brake assist will actually start braking, if the driver doesn’t take any actions, will start braking and slowing the vehicle and will actually stop the vehicle. And in this case, we know that this tractor trailer that killed your son could have easily had that equipment installed because it was available in the 2024 Freightliners. Had it been installed, it would have alerted the driver of that tractor, semi-tractor, of your son’s vehicle being stranded on the roadway, would have started giving him alerts, and then eventually would have braked and stopped short of hitting your son. And your son would be alive today.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Another thing is it being installed. You have to do an inspection on your truck. And if you’re not the only one driving that truck, you need to go make sure, they need to make sure that it’s still plugged in because they can go without. You know what I’m saying? The driver before you, because they probably done been in so many accidents, they don’t want to keep track. So they unplug it or something.

David Craig – Host: Well, a lot of the tractors don’t even get it to begin with. And so when they’re buying it, they bundle it up. And it’s really not that expensive to have. I’ve heard everything from a few hundred to like 4,000 max, 2,500 down to a few hundred dollars. But you could add that piece of equipment and that technology for hundreds-

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Just the basic.

David Craig – Host: … basic, or a few thousand dollars. And then what they do is they discount it if they take it off. So the vendor, the companies that sell it, encourage trucking companies to remove it and save a little bit of money by removing that and not actually having that technology added to their vehicle, which is a tragedy, a travesty of justice because if it’s available, I think you and I both would agree, even if it was $4,000 per tractor, so what?

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Right. And it’s good for your insurance. That would save you on insurance.

David Craig – Host: And if it saves one life and you’re not here today, it’s well worth that cost. And I think that’s what hopefully, you sharing your story is that if these semi-tractor trailers should all have. I mean, I would assume you think everybody should have this equipment that has the safety crash avoidance software and equipment in there.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: I think all commercial vehicles, not just the trucks, but all of them. If you drive commercial vehicle, you value your driver’s license, I would make sure everything is in order to protect yourself. Because sometimes the company, they throw you out there. They knew they didn’t have that on there. Every company, bus company, truck company, box trucks, anything that drives commercial need to have that on their vehicle because I don’t want nobody sitting here and having to go through this because this is hard. This is hard. I could just see him sitting in the car. You coming head on to him. His phone the one dialed 9-1-1, so he was alert. He was woke when he got hit. And to just imagine your child sitting there, even though he was a grown man, he was still mine.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. So what we’d like to see happen is we would like to see all commercial motor vehicles be equipped with crash avoidance software, not in the future, but now.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Now.

David Craig – Host: We would like all responsible companies to require that they add that to their all new equipment. Because if they would do that, then hopefully, someone else won’t have to be going through what you’re going through.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Right. And you might as well get ready to see my face because I’m fitting to be advocating a lot because I don’t want another family to go through this at all because this is hard. My whole family is lost.

David Craig – Host: Well, and I know we’ve talked in the past, but I know some days are worse than others, but it’s every day you suffer because of this loss. So it looks like you brought a picture of your son with you.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Yes. Isaiah.

David Craig – Host: Tell me that.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: We always go on this cruise every year. And when I lost my youngest son, Isaiah was like, “Mama, it’s just me and you now. Whatever you do, I’m doing too.” So he would go on the cruise with me. This lady right here, Kenzie, she made this. And everybody that was on the cruise last year signed it. And they did a tribute to him and things like that. His job did a tribute to him. He was well-loved. Very soft-spoken. Very soft-spoken. Didn’t bother nobody.

David Craig – Host: So I belong to and support other groups that advocate for safety. One of our things our firm does is we try to make people aware through stories like your own so that they don’t go through what you’ve gone through. And I think even our politicians, it’s helpful for them to understand. We’re not just talking about a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. We’re talking about lives. And so they need to take into consideration what the decision of not adding this equipment, what that means. Unfortunately, the best way to learn that is for people to hear stories because we know for a fact that your son would be alive today had this tractor trailer had the equipment that was readily available and that should have been sold with that tractor when it was purchased. And it wasn’t.

As a result, your son passed away, and he’s not here. He didn’t go on that cruise with you this year. And so we’re going to try to make people aware. And I hope any people listening to this episode of After the Crash will do whatever they can do. Reach out to their congressmen, congresswomen. They need to be advocates for protecting because as you know from driving bus, the semi-tractors, they’re all over the roadways. I mean, with today’s society, we have so much delivered to us, and everybody wants it today, immediately. And so we’ve got so much stuff being shipped all over the country. So there’s more semis and more box trucks and more vans and more commercial motor vehicles than ever. And we need to do something to make them safer.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: Yes, we do. And I always been a safety driver. I always get my customers to where they got to go. “Same way I pick you up, I bring you back.” That’s what I always tell them. They just laugh. And they might do cargo that don’t talk back. I have cargo that talks and behind my head. So you have to tune that out to keep you from being distracted. But I have been where somebody done ran me off the road, and I’m in a 45-foot bus. But I also know how to save myself and correct it where I won’t go off the road, all the way off. So I just really, really want this so won’t nobody else have to go through this because this is hard. I cry every day. I live in his house, so I see him everywhere.

David Craig – Host: Well, Celeste, is there anything else that you want to talk about or you want to share about your son, Isaiah, that we haven’t talked about?

Celeste Bowens-Martin: He was the life of the party. He loved to dance. Like I said, some people might have played with him online and stuff. His handle was Twilight Deacon. He was a gamer, a very avid gamer, collector. Oh my goodness. I’ve been trying to go through his stuff, and I’m just like, and I helped contribute to some of it. Mom. I’ll be out, and I’ll go be at a store at a mall or something. And I’ll be going that even a couple of my coworkers be like, “Don’t you go in that store?” I’d be like, “I’m going to just go.” Because at first, I wouldn’t because he would call me. He said, “Mama, I know you in D.C. Y’all going to the mall?” And I’m like, “Yes, Isaiah.” And then I said, “Okay, I’ll call you back.” I’m like, “You on break now?” He said, “Yeah.”

And then I flip my phone and walk all through the store so he can see. And then have me in there spending $200 and $300 on stuff to bring him because he’s a very avid collector. He had every game system, new and old. He loved his niece and his nephews. He loved his cousins. And they all miss him. They miss him a lot. And he had a brother and a sister from his dad. And they doing pretty good. They holding on. I don’t know about his dad. I think his dad is about like me. Just get up every day and just keep walking and just wishing he was here because that’s his firstborn.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. Are you still driving a bus?

Celeste Bowens-Martin: No. I am on leave. I am on medical leave. And I say, “Is Isaiah doing it to me?” I fell in December. I parked my bus and got out, locked it up, turned around. Yeah, and I wound up falling. And I wound up breaking my ankle in three spots and tore my meniscus all in my right leg. So I’ve been off work all this time. So yeah, I done destroyed my house about two or three times because now I have to deal, sure enough deal with this. Driving is my therapy. Don’t nobody understand that me sitting down is not helping me. Me not going to talk. Everybody said, “You need to go seek therapy. You need to go seek therapy.”

Everybody deals with grief different. And my way of dealing with grief is to drive. And I did it for my parents. I drove the day before. And soon as it was over, the next day I was gone. This time, they wouldn’t let me drive for two weeks. And I was like, “If y’all don’t let me drive, I’m going to spaz out.” Because I already knew I would. But this when I fell, I said, “That was Isaiah.” He was up there talking to his grandma and talking to the man upstairs. He’s talking to God. And he was like, “My mama need to sit down. She just go, go, go, go, go. And she just won’t sit down.” Well, I’ve been sitting for eight months.

David Craig – Host: Well, and I know from talking with you that it makes it even harder for you to be sitting at home and not working, and it gives you more time to sit and think about your son. And you’re in the house, and so it’s right there every single day.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: I promise you, I swear, I smell him. I see him. And stuff will fall, and I’ll be like, “Okay, Isaiah. I know. Okay. Okay. I need to suck it up, buttercup.” Because that’s what I used to tell the boys all the time. I’d be like, “Suck it up, buttercup. It’s going to be okay.”

David Craig – Host: Well, Celeste, thank you so much for coming on in this episode of After the Crash and sharing your story. I hope that we can give you an opportunity to share your story, not only here on this podcast, but nationwide so that you can hopefully bring some awareness to this issue so people can understand that this can be avoided. We can save lives if we just put this equipment on these commercial motor vehicles.

Celeste Bowens-Martin: It just need one, and then everybody will fall in suit. And thank you for having me. And if you call me, I’m coming.

David Craig – Host: Well, thank you, Celeste. Thanks for listening to another episode of After the Crash. If you or someone you know has been involved in a semi-truck wreck and you want to talk, go to ckflaw.com or give me a call at 1-800-ASK-DAVID. If you want additional information about semi-truck wrecks or how to pick the right attorney, check out my two books, Semitruck Wreck: A Guide for the Victims and Their Families, or It’s Never Been Easier to Hire the Wrong Attorney. Both of them are available on Amazon, or you can download them for free on our website, ckflaw.com.