(OPRAH.com) -- Shelly and her husband, Daren Forney, were the happily married parents of three beautiful girls, 13-year-old Jessica, 9-year-old Erica and 4-year-old Valerie. "Erica is my little sunshine because she lit up the house," Shelly says. "She was making us laugh before she was a year old."





Two days before Thanksgiving in 2008 , Shelly came back from a doctor's appointment to find emergency crews on her street. "There were all these people and a child lying on the ground," she says. "I had no idea it was my daughter."





Daren says Erica was riding her bike home from school. "Erica was just around the corner from our house," he says. "She was 30 seconds from being home safely."





Erica had been hit head-on by a 5,000-pound SUV. Police say that the driver had recently finished a phone call at the time of the accident. "The driver said: 'I'm so sorry. I didn't see her,'" Shelly says. "I felt badly for the driver because I thought: 'Oh, she's unconscious. She's going to be okay.' ... And they started cutting my daughter's clothes off and it was hitting me this is very, very, very serious."





Watch mom remember her daughter, the fatal day





Erica was rushed to the local children's hospital, then airlifted to another facility. "The neurosurgeon made it very clear she was going to die," Shelly says. "I spent the night with her that night. I held her. Cried. I kissed her. I sang to her. I just needed to have time with my girl."





The driver of the SUV, Michelle Smith, pleaded guilty last year to careless driving resulting in death and was sentenced to two years probation, a $300 fine and 150 hours of community service, according to the Denver Post. Her sentence also required her to write a letter of apology to the Forney family and have the letter published in newspapers.





Since Erica's death, Shelly and Daren have been working to change the laws in Colorado. "I don't want any other parent to have to go through this, or a husband to lose his wife," she says. "We have been trying so hard to get this law changed, and we're going to continue until it happens."





In the meantime, Shelly and Daren say every single person who gets behind the wheel can make a difference. "Get off the phone. Save a life. Don't talk and drive," she says. "You've got precious cargo in that car. Your life. Your children's life. They are not worth a phone call, a text, an e-mail. It's not worth it."





Nearly 500,000 people are injured and 6,000 are killed each year because drivers are talking, texting and e-mailing behind the wheel, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.





"It is my prayer that this show, this day will be a seminal day in your life," Oprah Winfrey said on her show Tuesday.





"Let it be the end, the end of you using a cell phone or sending a text message when you are behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. And until we as a nation decide we're going to change that, those numbers are only going to go up."





Oprah.com: Take Oprah's no phone zone pledge





Most European countries ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving, but not all U.S. states have laws restricting texting and driving.





So far, 19 states and the District of Columbia have banned texting while driving. In seven states and the District of Columbia, drivers can only use their cell phones if they are hands-free. Of the states with these laws, Utah's laws are among the strictest, due to one distracted driver and two grieving families.





Oprah.com: Why multitaskers should beware





September 22, 2006, began like
What happened to Shelly and Daren Forney's daughter? who lost their daughter in an accident?
Erica had been hit head-on by a 5,000-pound SUV. Shelly and her husband, Daren Forney,
question: What happened to Shelly and Daren Forney's daughter?, answer: Erica had been hit head-on by a 5,000-pound SUV. | question: who lost their daughter in an accident?, answer: Shelly and her husband, Daren Forney,