It’s nonetheless laborious for me to debate although it was practically two years in the past: The evening my 27-year-old son, Josh, was killed by an intoxicated hit-and-run driver.
Josh had been visiting some family members for dinner that evening. It was throughout a number of the darkest days of the pandemic — February 6, 2021 — and a brand new and less-remarked-upon risk was rising: a surge in reckless driving. In 2021, site visitors deaths noticed their highest single-year leap ever in recorded historical past, reaching their highest level in 16 years.
Josh had been dwelling in Los Angeles for greater than a decade, pursuing a music profession and thriving. Each mom boasts about their youngster. However I’ll always remember the best way Josh lit up the room when he walked into it. A graduate of USC, Josh was a rare musician, a serial entrepreneur, and most spectacular was his humility, kindness and thoughtfulness.
The evening my life modified without end and my household was shattered, a driver who was fleeing home arrest for DUI in Texas was rushing by way of a residential zone. He ran three lights earlier than killing Josh. The motive force didn’t cease. It wasn’t till the next day I realized that my son had no probability of survival.
The basis phrase for bereavement in Latin, I’ve since realized, means to be robbed.
Mounting site visitors deaths, it seems, is one other bitter aspect impact of a pandemic, and a number of the social dysfunction that accompanied it. The struggling that I’ve skilled, the trauma of being robbed of a beloved one beneath these circumstances, has touched 1000’s of households, with little publicity and public outcry. This rising aggression on our roadways is robbing us of individuals we love.
Throughout the pandemic years, mortality amongst younger adults rose to a top not seen since 1953. The rise was pushed not as a lot by COVID, which was much less prone to be lethal for individuals beneath 35 (by no means rising among the many danger they face from automobile crashes in a typical yr). Elevated mortality was as a substitute pushed largely by a surge in sudden violent damage, sometimes from automobile crashes and gun violence.
I’m not the identical particular person I used to be earlier than the evening Josh was killed. However within the year-plus since, I’ve had a possibility to be taught some issues. Till my household was affected, for instance, I by no means knew site visitors crashes have been preventable. That we have now the instruments to cut back them. It by no means occurred to me to be involved that we weren’t doing sufficient to guard one another from this risk.
Dropping Josh has opened my eyes to how site visitors deaths are linked to institutional injustice and public indifference. Engineers cite issues about too many “seconds of delay” to automobile journey because the barrier to confirmed design options that make streets safer. Politicians at Metropolis Halls and State Homes ignore confirmed countermeasures that may save lives. As an illustration, in California, communities are banned from utilizing velocity security cameras, and have to leap by way of numerous sophisticated authorized hoops to decrease speeds for security. One of many issues that retains me going is working to honor Josh’s life, by sharing his music and doing different good works in his reminiscence.
November 20, my household and buddies can be internet hosting slightly vigil for Josh in Los Angeles. It coincides with World Day of Remembrance, a world demonstration to extend the visibility of the big toll of automobile crashes. Dozens of comparable demonstrations are deliberate in cities and small cities throughout the nation.
We’ll be assembly at 11 a.m. on the crash web site: Hollywood Boulevard and Wilcox. The musical group Rosebud can be performing.
Change begins with recognizing the issue. We’ve got to get again to caring for one another. There’s a task for us to play as drivers, bear in mind the high-stakes accountability that driving is. However extra importantly, we’re asking our political leaders to recommit to town’s Imaginative and prescient Zero Aim: zero deaths by 2025, the deadline is approaching and we’re woefully behind. It’s going to take political braveness to make the sorts of minor adjustments to our streets which are wanted. And it’ll take compassion from the general public. However the worth of our inaction is insufferable.
Lori Markowitz is a co-founder and boardmember of the The Josh Fund, which was created as a way to honor Joshua Samuel Markowitz’s legacy and love for music.
