Young racer drives home the message that suicide deserves attention | Opinion

It’s a strange place for an anti-suicide message, blazoned across the front of a sleek and speedy stock car. It must have been even stranger to see the words “Race to Stop Suicide” printed on the tickets for the 55th Annual Governor’s Cup Race at the New Smyrna Beach Speedway.

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But what’s truly remarkable is how the logos got there  – and how every step along the way connected people who knew someone who had contemplated suicide or taken their own lives.

That’s because suicide is far more pervasive than many realize, thanks to the silence that for too long surrounded the topic. It’s the eighth-leading cause of death in Florida, but that number surges among younger people. For people aged 10-24, it is third. For those aged 25-34, it is second only to “unintentional injury,” a vast category that includes drug overdose and motor vehicle accidents. Brevard County has a suicide rate above the state’s (19.6 per 100,000 people in 2019 versus 14.5), though it has seen a decline from historic highs in 2015 and 2016. 

Many still don’t talk about it, but too many Floridians’ lives have been touched by suicide. For 16-year-old Daniel  Dye, a rising star in short-track racing who placed a remarkable second at the Governor’s Cup race earlier this month, that connection hit at a young age: When he was 14, Daniel told his father, he’d talked two friends out of taking their own lives. 

Randy Dye, who owns a big Daytona Beach car dealership and is active on several local boards, had the connections to make something happen. Among his many philanthropic efforts, the elder Dye has helped raise more than $30,000 to support children’s mental health services through Halifax Health, which is one of the sponsors of his son’s No. 43 car. The idea to paint “Race to Stop Suicide” on the hood was a brilliant stroke, one that has helped start conversations about suicide prevention, Daniel Dye told The News-Journal’s Nikki Ross when the car debuted last year. 

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This year, the Dye racing team carried that mission to the next level when they worked with the Hart family (who owns the New Smyrna Speedway) to name the three-day Governor’s Cup weekend for the effort. Bill Gallagher, owner of Solar-Fit in Holly Hill and another sponsor of Dye’s racing team, has also pledged support for the Race to Stop Suicide. Again, these connections weren’t hard to make: Both Gallagher and the Hart family know families touched by suicide, and they didn’t hesitate to speak out about it. 

These conversations may be sparked by a painted logo on a race car, the plot of a TV show, or an ad on a billboard. The important thing is that they are taking place. Americans are coming to the realization that talking about suicide  – looking for warning signs or simply asking someone if they are OK  – can become a lifeline in a time of desperation. And that awareness is needed now more than ever: A survey conducted in June by the Centers for Disease Control found that more than 40 percent of adults said they were struggling with mental health problems and 11 percent said they’d seriously considered suicide in the past 30 days. Since then, things have gotten worse for many Americans; federal unemployment benefits have run out, frontline health care workers are exhausted and many people have been cut off from coworkers, friends and family for nearly eight months now.

Florida lawmakers passed a bill in this year’s session that expands the responsibilities of the Statewide Office for Suicide Prevention to include collecting and analyzing more in-depth data on suicide, including trends by gender, age, profession and other criteria. The legislation  emphasizes greater efforts to prevent suicide among first responders and service members. The information will be particularly timely as lawmakers prepare to deal with a $5.4 billion budget deficit; the state already ranks at the bottom of 50 states for per-capita mental health funding. Cuts should spare crisis intervention and mental health services if at possible. 

“Let’s face it, suicide touches us all,” Daniel Dye said in a pre-race Facebook video. It will take ordinary Floridians  – and extraordinary ones, like Dye  – to bring that message home to state lawmakers. 

The Daytona Beach News-Journal Editorial Board.