Street safety advocates, elected officials and those impacted by traffic violence in Connecticut gathered in New Haven this weekend to remember those lost and call for change.
Dozens attended the annual World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims event at Goffe Street Park on Sunday afternoon. Organizers planted flags for each of the 342 people killed on Connecticut roads – drivers, passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians – since last year’s event.
Among the speakers was Sherry Chapman of Coventry, Connecticut, whose 19-year-old son, Ryan Ramirez, was killed in a 2002 crash in Hebron.
“The trauma to families is immeasurable and life lasting,” Chapman said. “I cannot begin to express to you the immensity of the loss, the weight of the grief.”
“Out of this tragedy, I have become a firm believer in the power and effectiveness of public policy safety measures,” Chapman said.
Carri Roux of Farmington also lost a son to a traffic collision. Luke Roux was 17 when he was killed by a drunk driver. The mother was one of many speakers to stress the theme of this year’s memorial event: that these incidents are preventable, and not merely “accidents.”
“Luke’s body was destroyed that night and my family was left broken physically, emotionally and mentally,” Roux said. “Our lives were shattered, but the impact rippled far beyond my family. Countless friends, community members, first responders, emergency room personnel and so many others have been deeply affected by this horrific collision.”
“This was not an accident, it was a preventable crash,” Roux said. “And these crashes need to end.”
State Rep. Roland Lemar, a New Haven Democrat who co-chairs the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee, faulted the deaths on “close to 50 years of poor designs, poor enforcement, poor engineering and poor regard for the safety on our roadways for our most vulnerable users.”
“In the last few years,” Lemar said, “you've seen the local media, advocates, allies, probably you yourself stop referring to drunk driving ‘accidents,’ or an ‘accident’ when someone was going 25 miles over the speed limit, or an ‘accident’ when someone picked up their cell phone and decided to craft a text.”
“Those aren't accidents,” Lemar said.
Garrett Eucalitto, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, said the need for such an annual memorial reflected “a failure on the part of all of us,” and said infrastructure, individual behavior and public messaging all play a role in preventing future deaths and injuries.
“We need to spread the message that it's not okay to allow your friends or your family to drive 85 miles per hour on the highway,” Eucalitto said. “It's not okay to let your friends take another drink or to smoke and get behind the wheel. It's not okay to do cocaine and then kill someone on the side of the road, and that's what's happening every day.”
Advocates at the event called for harsher penalties for speeding and impaired driving; safer street and crosswalk designs; and increased awareness about the staggering number of road deaths in the state and country each year.
“In 2023, nearly 41,000 people lost their lives on U.S. roadways, 7,318 of them pedestrians,” said Amy Watkins of the street safety group Watch For Me CT.
“I'm sure that many of you can remember the tragedies when two Boeing 737 Max airplanes crashed within five months of each other, killing 346 people,” Watkins said. “The Max 737 was grounded. Production was halted, the crashes were investigated by multiple agencies, and new requirements for pilot training and aircraft design were swiftly put in place.”
Watkins said she’d like to see similar urgency in response to deaths on U.S. roads.
“The number of people killed in traffic crashes last year is equivalent to those two planes crashing over and over again, 118 times. That is 236 airplanes falling out of the sky in one year. Where is the outrage? Where are the mandates? Where are the emergency meetings?” she asked. “ That’s why we're here today. We are here to voice our outrage, to share our loss and to call for change.”
“We are here,” Watkins said, “because this is not acceptable.”
