CNN
—
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 day-after-day at round 4:05 p.m., the time Sarah died: They drop no matter they’re engaged on, collect collectively, maintain palms and discuss to her, sharing particulars about their day. They inform her they love her, they miss her, and so they hope she’s happy with them.
Sarah Debbink Langenkamp was killed August 25 whereas driving her bike on a Bethesda, Maryland, highway. She was touring on the biker’s lane when the motive force of a flatbed truck alongside her made a proper flip right into a car parking zone and ran over the 42-year-old, police stated. She was pronounced useless on the scene.
“I’ve tried to make sense of what occurred to Sarah, and since I began trying into it, I’ve realized this isn’t a freakish accident,” Dan Langenkamp stated. “What occurred to her is a part of an enormous, worsening development in America of individuals getting killed in site visitors crashes. There’s an epidemic of site visitors violence in opposition to folks strolling 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 a part of a small group of US authorities workers who stayed behind after Russia’s invasion however finally made the troublesome resolution to depart, 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 conflict first began.
The couple spent just a few weeks in Washington DC earlier than shifting to Bethesda, the place they have been eagerly making ready for the beginning of a brand 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 faculty. A couple of minutes earlier than she obtained on her bike to return house that night, she known as Dan to share her impressions. It was the final name she ever made.
“We’ve lived in harmful locations,” Langenkamp stated. “The very last thing we anticipated was that one among us would die or get damage in Bethesda.”
His anger, Langenkamp stated, has been a driving power to push for change in bike security. A GoFundMe marketing campaign Langenkamp created has raised greater than $289,000 to assist native and nationwide biking security organizations of their efforts to advocate for safer bike routes.
And on Saturday, tons of of individuals biked to Congress in Sarah’s honor in a ten.5-mile Experience for Your Life occasion her husband organized and led. Simply ft from the Capitol, a line of audio system, together with Langenkamp, spoke to a sea of bikers on the finish of their journey retracing Sarah’s route on the day she died.
The group’s requests to lawmakers embody funding for the Lively Transportation Infrastructure Funding Program, which was licensed by Congress however not funded and which can assist native governments spend money on 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 massive vans to forestall folks from getting caught beneath.
“I get consolation understanding that, possibly by means of all of this work, another mom will journey house safely after driving her bike to work,” Langenkamp stated. “And that’s significant to me.”
For a lot of advocates, the struggle for safer roads has been lengthy and troublesome, even amid worsening traits for biker and pedestrian security. The issues have solely been exacerbated by elevated driver recklessness through the pandemic and larger, heavier – and deadlier – autos on the roads, stated Colin Browne, a spokesperson for the Washington Space Bicyclist Affiliation.
Greater than 930 cyclists have been killed on American roads in 2020, a 9% enhance from the prior yr, and greater than 38,800 have been injured, in line with information from the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration. Practically 80% of deadly bicyclist crashes that yr have been in city areas, the company stated. At the very least 985 cyclists have been killed in 2021, a 5% enhance from 2020, in line with early estimates from the NHTSA. Since 1975, deaths amongst cyclists 20 or older have almost quadrupled, in line with the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security.
“It’s a public well being disaster,” Browne stated. “Much more so as a result of that is, from a technical standpoint, not a difficult downside to resolve. The instruments and the engineering to make the streets safer to make use of is on the market, it’s examined, it’s confirmed.”
However creating safer streets for bikers and pedestrians and regulating massive autos has typically proved a politically unpopular transfer, which has led to gradual motion from native leaders, he added.
“We may give (funding) to buses and other people on bikes and scooters, however we’ve type of constructed an infrastructure that assumes the vast majority of folks will drive,” Browne stated.
Anna Irwin additionally rode her bike together with her 10-year-old daughter at Saturday’s occasion to honor Sarah’s reminiscence. She advised CNN she was moved by the scale of the gang and the sound of motorcycle bells ringing to point out their help for Langenkamp.
“It was unbelievably highly effective,” she stated. “One of many issues that I realized in a short time once I obtained into bike advocacy is that this neighborhood is so passionate. And so they present up.”
Irwin based the Bethesda BIKE Now coalition, an area group created in response to a 2017 resolution from native leaders to close down a preferred bike path which ran by means of Bethesda through the building 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 opposite, whereas the present path stays closed. However progress has been gradual, Irwin stated.
“Right here we’re, in 2022, and neither one of many routes is accomplished,” Irwin stated. “They’ve achieved some work, however in 5 years they’ll’t construct a protected bike lane to cowl two miles of closely trafficked space?”
The Montgomery County Division of Transportation advised CNN it not too long ago accomplished the primary section of two segments within the community and extra bike lanes are both being designed or underneath building, including “we’re constructing them as quick as we are able to.”
The division can also be working with the Maryland Division of Transportation State Freeway Administration, which controls River Street, the place Sarah was killed.
The freeway administration stated Friday it’s dedicated to the protection of all freeway customers however didn’t reply CNN’s particular questions on bike path initiatives, together with if there are plans for building on River Street. On Saturday, the division added it has begun a “complete wants evaluation” for a stretch of the freeway which is able to assist establish methods to “handle pedestrian and bicycle community wants, improve security, and enhance journey situations.” Within the meantime, officers are contemplating options together with a velocity restrict discount or signal upgrades in that a part of the highway, it famous.
The company final month introduced it began building on one other highway in North Bethesda, the place an 18-year-old bicycle owner was killed in June and a 17-year-old bicycle owner was killed in 2019.
“This stuff may have been prevented,” Irwin stated. “We have now obtained to simply maintain educating folks in regards to the want for protected bike lanes. You possibly can’t simply paint the highway after which count on automobiles to present us the house that we’d like. It’s not protected.”
Langenkamp has stated his fundraising effort can even assist advocate for the state’s transportation division to create a safer bike lane on River Street, the place Sarah was killed.
“Such bike lanes – missing correct boundaries, truck/auto driver training, legal guidelines, and regulation enforcement – are solely loss of life traps,” Langenkamp wrote on his GoFundMe web page.
The struggle 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. Only a few days in the past, his son famous he had no clear pants for college, and Langenkamp realized he hadn’t achieved laundry for per week. He typically worries what holidays and Mom’s Day will seem like for the youngsters.
Sarah cherished their two boys, he stated. Even amid a demanding job which took the household all around the globe – together with to Baghdad, the Ivory Coast and Uganda – she was at all times in a position to flip off work and deal with her household, Langenkamp stated. Whereas working from Poland throughout Russia’s conflict 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 within 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 everyone’s favourite colleague.”
The 2 met of their Overseas Service orientation class in 2005 and have been married a yr later. “She had this quiet confidence, and a really down-to-earth, pleasant demeanor that simply actually made her simple to get together with,” Langenkamp stated. “She was the form of boss that everyone loves. Simply actually sensible.”
And he or 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 “the place we have been wanted.”
Throughout their time in Ukraine, Sarah headed the US Embassy’s applications on corruption and regulation enforcement and was liable for equipping and supplying its nationwide police and border guard. And he or she was a “essential participant” in Ukraine’s protection efforts and helped Ukrainian police and border guard forces obtain tools 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, Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“She was our guiding mild, actually, and our ethical compass,” Langenkamp stated. “It was her judgment that helped us by means of the whole lot.”
Three months since her loss of life, reminders of Sarah are in every single place across the household’s Bethesda house, Langenkamp stated.
There’s a nook – part of the house 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. Close by, photos of Sarah are taped proper as much as the ceiling. “We simply attempt to have her round, in every single place,” her husband stated.
There’s additionally an image Sarah gifted to her husband at their wedding ceremony. It’s an image of a motorcycle with the phrases, “Life is an exquisite journey. Dan and Sarah, est. 2006,” the yr of their wedding ceremony.
“Biking was a factor for us,” he stated. “It was a central a part of our lives,” a mode of transportation which was “down-to-earth, wholesome and environmentally pleasant,” Langenkamp added.
Wherever the couple discovered themselves, they tried to commute by bike when attainable, he added. Selecting this struggle for security since his spouse’s loss of life was nearly like an “impulse,” Langenkamp stated.
“If the least I can do to honor her, an individual who had a lot potential in her life. If we are able to perform a little bit of excellent because of this, I’ll have been consoled barely,” he stated.
“It received’t convey her again,” Langenkamp added. “However at the least it’ll assist, a little bit bit.”
