‘Lasting Impact’ video shares Maas family’s tragic outcome

State public safety officials are hoping to make a lasting impression on teenagers across Minnesota through a video recounting the horror a Dodge County family has faced over a teenager who made a fatal mistake.
The Minnesota State Patrol has rolled out “Lasting Impact,” a video about Logan Maas, a Triton High School senior, who was killed in 2015 in northern Dodge County. The patrol unveiled the video for the first time for students and Maas family members at Triton School.
Logan’s father, Matt Maas, is the emergency management director as well as the 911 dispatch supervisor for Dodge County.
Lasting Impact includes interviews with the Maas family, the driver and school officials, and shows how one life lost can change a community forever. The program lasts about 50 minutes. It is available at no cost to all high schools and driver education classes across Minnesota, or any organization that would find it valuable.
The patrol hopes to educate young drivers on the importance of staying safe behind the wheel. Minnesota teen drivers continue to be overrepresented in traffic crashes due to driver inexperience, distraction, speeding and risk-taking.
Through the video, the patrol also hopes to promote good decision-making and raise awareness of the important responsibility that comes with driving. The video presents real-life situations to help drivers understand the consequences of poor decisions behind the wheel.
“The purpose is to get people’s attention and change their behavior,” said Col. Matt Langer, chief of the State Patrol. “We have 600 troopers that want to take this video and get into every high school.”
In December 2015, four friends decided to go for a joyride on a steep gravel road south of Pine Island. All three passengers were unbuckled when the driver lost control of her vehicle at a high rate of speed. Maas, 18, was killed instantly when he was ejected from the vehicle. He was just months away from graduating from Triton.
To request a showing of Lasting Impact, contact the Rochester district office of the State Patrol at 507-923-2040.