CNN
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On Thursday, Dan Langenkamp marked 12 weeks since his spouse, Sarah, was killed.
To honor her, Dan and his two younger sons do what they do every single day at round 4:05 p.m., the time Sarah died: They drop no matter they’re engaged on, collect collectively, maintain palms and speak to her, sharing particulars about their day. They inform her they love her, they miss her, and so they hope she’s proud of them.
Sarah Debbink Langenkamp was killed August 25 whereas riding her bike on a Bethesda, Maryland, street. She was touring on the biker’s lane when the driver of a flatbed truck alongside her made a proper flip into a parking zone and ran over the 42-year-old, police said. She was pronounced useless at the scene.
“I’ve tried to make sense of what happened to Sarah, and since I started looking into it, I’ve realized this is not a freakish accident,” Dan Langenkamp stated. “What happened to her is part of a huge, worsening trend in America of people getting killed in traffic crashes. There’s an epidemic of traffic violence against people walking or biking.”
The accident got here simply weeks after the couple, each diplomats, moved again to the US after spending roughly a yr and a half in Ukraine and later in Poland, on the border. They have been half of a small group of US authorities workers who stayed behind after Russia’s invasion however in the end made the tough resolution to go away, so they might reunite with their two sons – Oliver, 10 and Axel, 8 – whom that they had despatched to their grandparents in California when the struggle first began.
The couple spent a few weeks in Washington DC earlier than shifting to Bethesda, the place they have been eagerly getting ready for the begin of a new chapter. Sarah enrolled in a grasp’s diploma course and, three days after their transfer there, attended an open home at her son’s new elementary college. A couple of minutes earlier than she acquired on her bike to return dwelling that night, she known as Dan to share her impressions. It was the final name she ever made.
“We’ve lived in dangerous places,” Langenkamp stated. “The last thing we expected was that one of us would die or get hurt in Bethesda.”
His anger, Langenkamp stated, has been a driving power to push for change in bike security. A GoFundMe campaign Langenkamp created has raised greater than $289,000 to assist native and nationwide biking security organizations in their efforts to advocate for safer bike routes.
And on Saturday, a whole bunch of individuals biked to Congress in Sarah’s honor in a 10.5-mile Ride for Your Life occasion her husband organized and led. Just toes from the Capitol, a line of audio system, together with Langenkamp, spoke to a sea of bikers at the finish of their journey retracing Sarah’s route on the day she died.
The group’s requests to lawmakers embody funding for the Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program, which was approved by Congress however not funded and which may help native governments make investments in bike lane infrastructure. They’re additionally asking for extra measures round truck security, together with mandating higher coaching and requiring aspect and entrance guards on giant vehicles to stop individuals from getting caught beneath.
“I get comfort knowing that, maybe through all of this work, some other mother will ride home safely after riding her bike to work,” Langenkamp stated. “And that’s meaningful to me.”
For many advocates, the battle for safer roads has been lengthy and tough, even amid worsening trends for biker and pedestrian security. The issues have only been exacerbated by increased driver recklessness throughout the pandemic and larger, heavier – and deadlier – automobiles on the roads, stated Colin Browne, a spokesperson for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.
More than 930 cyclists have been killed on American roads in 2020, a 9% improve from the prior yr, and greater than 38,800 have been injured, in accordance to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Nearly 80% of deadly bicyclist crashes that yr have been in city areas, the company stated. At least 985 cyclists have been killed in 2021, a 5% improve from 2020, in accordance to early estimates from the NHTSA. Since 1975, deaths amongst cyclists 20 or older have almost quadrupled, in accordance to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
“It’s a public health crisis,” Browne stated. “Even more so because this is, from a technical standpoint, not a challenging problem to solve. The tools and the engineering to make the streets safer to use is out there, it’s tested, it’s proven.”
But creating safer streets for bikers and pedestrians and regulating giant automobiles has typically proved a politically unpopular transfer, which has led to sluggish motion from native leaders, he added.
“We could give (funding) to buses and people on bikes and scooters, but we have sort of built an infrastructure that assumes the majority of people will drive,” Browne stated.
Anna Irwin additionally rode her bike with her 10-year-old daughter at Saturday’s occasion to honor Sarah’s reminiscence. She informed CNN she was moved by the dimension of the crowd and the sound of bike bells ringing to present their assist for Langenkamp.
“It was unbelievably powerful,” she stated. “One of the things that I learned very quickly when I got into bike advocacy is this community is so passionate. And they show up.”
Irwin based the Bethesda BIKE Now coalition, a native group created in response to a 2017 resolution from native leaders to shut down a widespread bike path which ran via Bethesda throughout the development of a rail line.
In these 5 years, the group has known as for the completion of a community of protected bike routes – fashioned by two main paths – operating from one aspect of Bethesda to the different, whereas the present path stays closed. But progress has been sluggish, Irwin stated.
“Here we are, in 2022, and neither one of the routes is completed,” Irwin stated. “They’ve done some work, but in five years they can’t build a protected bike lane to cover two miles of heavily trafficked area?”
The Montgomery County Department of Transportation informed CNN it not too long ago accomplished the first section of two segments in the community and extra bike lanes are both being designed or below development, including “we are building them as fast as we can.”
The division can be working with the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, which controls River Road, the place Sarah was killed.
The freeway administration stated Friday it’s dedicated to the security of all freeway customers however didn’t reply CNN’s particular questions on bike path tasks, together with if there are plans for development on River Road. On Saturday, the division added it has begun a “comprehensive needs analysis” for a stretch of the freeway which will assist determine methods to “address pedestrian and bicycle network needs, enhance safety, and improve travel conditions.” In the meantime, officers are contemplating options together with a velocity restrict discount or signal upgrades in that half of the street, it famous.
The company last month introduced it began development on one other street in North Bethesda, the place an 18-year-old cyclist was killed in June and a 17-year-old cyclist was killed in 2019.
“These things could have been prevented,” Irwin stated. “We have got to just keep educating people about the need for protected bike lanes. You can’t just paint the road and then expect cars to give us the space that we need. It’s not safe.”
Langenkamp has stated his fundraising effort will additionally assist advocate for the state’s transportation division to create a safer bike lane on River Road, the place Sarah was killed.
“Such bike lanes – lacking proper barriers, truck/auto driver education, laws, and law enforcement – are only death traps,” Langenkamp wrote on his GoFundMe web page.
The battle for change has given Langenkamp function in what in any other case has been an insufferable three months. Adjusting to life as a single father hasn’t been simple, he stated. Just a few days in the past, his son famous he had no clear pants for college, and Langenkamp realized he hadn’t performed laundry for a week. He typically worries what holidays and Mother’s Day will appear to be for the kids.
Sarah beloved their two boys, he stated. Even amid a demanding job which took the household throughout the world – together with to Baghdad, the Ivory Coast and Uganda – she was all the time in a position to flip off work and deal with her household, Langenkamp stated. While working from Poland throughout Russia’s struggle on Ukraine, Sarah flew to California for a weekend over the summer time to shock her oldest son on his birthday. She returned to Europe when the weekend was over. And in the weeks earlier than her return to the US, she wrote heartfelt postcards to her boys, sharing she couldn’t wait till they have been reunited.
She was equally unbelievable at her job, her husband stated, including, “She was everybody’s favorite colleague.”
The two met in their Foreign Service orientation class in 2005 and have been married a yr later. “She had this quiet confidence, and a very down-to-earth, friendly demeanor that just really made her easy to get along with,” Langenkamp stated. “She was the kind of boss that everybody loves. Just really smart.”
And she was by no means afraid to go to the locations the place different diplomats have been typically unwilling to go, telling her husband it was “where we were needed.”
During their time in Ukraine, Sarah headed the US Embassy’s packages on corruption and legislation enforcement and was accountable for equipping and supplying its nationwide police and border guard. And she was a “critical player” in Ukraine’s protection efforts and helped Ukrainian police and border guard forces obtain gear like helmets and physique armor after the invasion, Langenkamp added. After her killing, letters of appreciation poured in from US leaders together with President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“She was our guiding light, really, and our moral compass,” Langenkamp stated. “It was her judgment that helped us through everything.”
Three months since her demise, reminders of Sarah are in all places round the household’s Bethesda dwelling, Langenkamp stated.
There’s a nook – a half of the dwelling Langenkamp refers to as a “shrine” to his spouse – the place a candle stays lit by her urn, surrounded by photos of the household, notes Sarah’s sons wrote to their mother after her passing, jewellery she used to put on, playing cards from household and associates. Nearby, photos of Sarah are taped proper up to the ceiling. “We just try to have her around, everywhere,” her husband stated.
There’s additionally a image Sarah gifted to her husband at their marriage ceremony. It’s a image of a bike with the phrases, “Life is a beautiful ride. Dan and Sarah, est. 2006,” the yr of their marriage ceremony.
“Biking was a thing for us,” he stated. “It was a central part of our lives,” a mode of transportation which was “down-to-earth, healthy and environmentally friendly,” Langenkamp added.
Wherever the couple discovered themselves, they tried to commute by bike when potential, he added. Choosing this battle for security since his spouse’s demise was nearly like an “impulse,” Langenkamp stated.
“If the least I can do to honor her, a person who had so much potential in her life. If we can do a little bit of good as a result of this, I’ll have been consoled slightly,” he stated.
“It won’t bring her back,” Langenkamp added. “But at least it will help, a little bit.”
