MILWAUKEE, Wis. — It's been one year since Samantha Zganjar and Chloe Handrich were hit and severely injured by a driver on Water Street.
Despite causing life-altering injuries that resulted in countless surgeries, the driver was ticketed for failing to yield, driving without insurance, and driving without car registration.
Last year, TMJ4's Chief Investigative Reporter Jenna Rae connected with the Zganjar and the Handrich families after they said the driver wasn't held accountable and claimed Milwaukee Police could have done more.
Now, as the grueling memories of this incident creep back in one year later, the women are asking the question again: could more have been done?
Zganjar and Handrich return to Water and State Street in the heart of Milwaukee's entertainment district with Rae to reflect on their year of tragedy, recovery, and the search for answers.
Watch: Water Street victims continue the fight for answers, accountability and justice
THE BACKGROUND
In the early hours of July 20, 2025, Zganjar and Handrich were crossing Water Street behind wooden barricades police said were there to keep the area "pedestrian safe."
The oncoming traffic light was green, despite those barricades being there, and video shows a driver go through the light, smash into the police barricades, and Zganjar and Handrich.
The driver, who we're not naming because she hasn't been criminally charged, admitted to drinking earlier that day. She was never given a standardized field sobriety test (SFST), and she was never arrested. The driver was ticketed for failing to yield and driving without registration and insurance.
Milwaukee Police insist the crash was an accident and said it "didn't rise to the level of a crime."
"It was really unfair that we have just kind of had to figure out how to like live with it and be fine with it because it was made very obvious to us that there was going to be no justice for our actual scenario," Handrich said one year after the incident.
THE INJURIES
Zganjar fractured her hand in four places, fractured her nose, and had several teeth knocked out. She's since had four surgeries.
Click or tap to reveal image (warning - graphic content):
Handrich shattered her pelvis, punctured her lung, injured her liver, had seven blood transfusions, and was in a wheelchair until January of this year.
"I still go to PT weekly, still, you know, having appointments with my surgeon," Handrich explained.
It's recovery that goes unseen too.
"Mentally, I was just in a really hard spot of kind of in between feeling very grateful that I was alive, but also being in such an astronomical amount of pain that should not be humanly possible, that I was kind of wishing I wasn't alive," Handrich said.
One year later, Zganjar and Handrich are celebrating the milestone of being alive.
"Little did we know, like, what was to come," Zganjar added.
It's a milestone that comes with gratitude and unanswered questions.
MPD HAD MERIDIAN BARRIERS, BUT DIDN'T USE THEM
Emails obtained by TMJ4 through an open records request show frustration within the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) two days after the incident.
Captain Robert Thiel, who oversees the Water Street Entertainment District, sent an email to other MPD supervisors saying:
"I really stressed with you that the barriers were needed to prevent injured officers, damaged squads and injured people. Let's have a meeting to discuss why they were not deployed and how that will be changed going forward. Going forward, I will need you to come to the meetings with the community when there are issues at code red. I am at a loss for words and could really use your insight to explain some of these issues. Let's plan on meeting, in person, August 6th at 5PM my office. Until then, the meridian barriers WILL be deployed on Friday and Saturday nights."
Meridian barriers are portable, heavy-duty steel barriers. The city has had them, and records show more were offered to the city for free after Zganjar and Handrich were hit and severely injured.
"Good job digging out those emails, I mean, that's news to me what was described in that email. Obviously, there was more discussion behind the scenes in the Milwaukee Police Department than was ever revealed at any of our hearings," Fourth District Alderman Robert Bauman said when Rae read him Thiel's email.
Bauman's been the alderman in that district for decades and has been vocal about the entertainment district needing safety improvements. Days after the incident last year, Bauman told Rae in an interview "that individual [the driver] should've been arrested and charges referred to the district attorney's office."
He said he stands by that today.
"I felt it did warrant charges and then let the court system sort it out and argue over what intent was present, what was reckless," Bauman explained.
THE SEARCH FOR ACCOUNTABILITY CONTINUES
When Zganjar and Handrich last interviewed with Rae in October of 2025, they said they still hadn't heard from anyone with MPD to discuss details of that night.
In a press release from MPD on October 8, 2025, a spokesperson with the department said TMJ4's reporting has "contributed to the continued trauma experienced by those affected by this tragic event."
After that press release came out, in an interview with TMJ4's Jenna Rae, Handrich said "You're the very last person I'd ever say caused any additional trauma to anything, and the response of the mayor, the police department, that has caused me exponential amount of trauma of feeling like I don't matter, and that is such a failure on all their parts."
One year later, Zganjar and Handrich said they still have not been contacted by anyone within MPD to discuss the incident.
To this day, no one from MPD will go on camera to answer questions about this crash. That's despite internal emails showing the department's made changes to weekend safety over the last year.
SAFETY CHANGES TO WEEKENDS ON WATER STREET
These are the changes a spokesperson with Milwaukee Police says the department has made to improve safety on Water Street on the weekends:
1. The lights at W State and N Water have been changed to blink red.
2. Meridian Barriers are used on Friday and Saturday nights to prevent vehicle traffic from entering the main zone. (Highland/Water and Knapp/Water)
3. Additional lighting is used by means of light towers.
4. Officers are instructed to wear reflective vests and guardian angel lights.
5. Squads are instructed to activate their light bars when an influx of pedestrians are present.
6. The Department of Community Wellness and Safety have been requested on heavy pedestrian days, to assist with compliance and deescalation.
7. Traffic squads are often present outside of the zone to enforce traffic laws.
8. MPD has prioritized parking enforcement, in conjunction with the Department of Public Works.
9. Scooters have been restricted from entering the zone.
10. The Milwaukee School of Engineering has been involved in messaging to their students about being responsible and safe.
TMJ4 News asked to speak with Captain Thiel about the changes, but MPD would not accommodate an interview.
In a statement, we're told: "We continue to send our well wishes for a full recovery to the young women involved and our thoughts to their families and loved ones impacted. MPD is committed to building sustainable neighborhoods, free of crime and maintained by positive relationships. We continually make public safety improvements throughout the City through careful review of deployments, the exploration of crime-solving technology and other strategies."
It's information both Zganjar and Handrich said would've been helpful during their recovery and path to closure.
"I feel like even communication of like measures they were taking to try and make sure this doesn't happen to other people would've been a huge part of closure for me, and that still has not happened. We are getting our information through you [Rae], which like we're so grateful for, but that's also not your responsibility, and that should be the responsibility of the city, the mayor," Handrich explained.
Rae took this concern to Mayor Cavalier Johnson. He said he's seen the safety improvements made on Water Street, but said communication involving victims is supposed to be coming from MPD.
"I leave it to MPD on what their response is with victims. If they're not seeing that, my recommendation would be to call the Fire and Police Commission (FPC), say there's an issue we were involved in, and we haven't gotten communication back from the Milwaukee Police Department," Johnson said.
"You think victims are entitled to that information," Rae asked.
"I think that they should reach out to the FPC in order to get whatever information that they possibly can from them, especially if it relates to an incident that they were involved in," Johnson responded.
LOOKING AHEAD
Zganjar and Handrich said despite the lack of answers and accountability, as they remember and commemorate this one-year milestone, they're trying to move on.
"I was able to start graduate school. Went to Italy last month with my family, so that was amazing, and just had my final surgery on the first of this month. So, hopefully end of September, I'm gonna have my real teeth in my mouth, so that's something I'm looking forward to now," Zganjar said.
"I am a clinical research coordinator at the Medical College of Wisconsin. I work in labor and delivery, and I really love it. I'm doing a segment in 'Impact Teen Drivers', so I can go to different driver's ed and high schools to talk about my story and hopefully to have kids realize the responsibility you're taking on," Handrich said.
"A split-second decision can ruin someone's life," she echoed.
It's a heavy lift of advocacy and change Zganjar and Handrich are now taking on themselves.
"It is a time for us to celebrate the year we've overcome and the amazing things that we've done in this year," Handrich said.
"The fact that we're standing here, she started a whole new job, I'm still doing grad school. I'm just really proud of where we've come,' Zganjar added.
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