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Vanessa Bryant is making a special plea to congress in honor of her husband Kobe Bryant and their daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant . The 38-year-old has urged congress to pass a helicopter safety bill named after the NBA star and the rising basketball star. “I strongly urge that the United States Congress pass a federal law that would improve the safety of helicopters operating in this country,” the mother-of-four said in a statement. “I believe there is a chance that Kobe and Gianna would still be alive today if their helicopter had been equipped with the safety equipment required by this pending federal investigation.”
She continued: “I believe that these safety measures will save many lives. As passengers traveling on aircrafts we assure that proper safety measures are in order to prevent accidents from happening before we fly. It’s unfortunate that this is not the case and aircraft companies must do their part to protect lives.”
The “Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant Helicopter Safety Act,” would require “all helicopters certified to carry six or more people to be equipped with a Terran Awareness and Warning System, a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder.”
Kobe, who was 41, and Gigi, who was 13, were killed after their helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California on January 26. Six other passengers and the pilot also died in the accident. In February, V filed a wrongful death suit against Island Express Helicopters. The 72-page suit, that was filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court, urged that Island Express agents and employees, including the helicopter’s pilot Ara George Zobayan, were at fault for the fatal crash.
Earlier this month, new documents, revealed that Vanessa is also seeking “economic damages, non-economic damages, prejudgment interest, punitive damages,” and any additional relief that the court deems proper. The documents also state that Vanessa’s family loss “hundreds of millions of dollars,” of Kobe’s future earnings.
The news of the new piece of legislation comes a lot a week after Vanessa and her oldest daughter Natalia changed their social media profiles to private. The mother-daughter duo shared that fan pages dedicated to Kobe and Gianna, as it has made it harder to cope with their loss.