MILWAUKEE — Thursday marks one year since a beloved Milwaukee pastor named Aaron Strong was killed by a reckless driver on his way to work.
“This is where I feel most connected with him,” she said.
Grace Lutheran Church in downtown Milwaukee is a a special place for Abbie Strong.
“He just loved the detail and he loved the coloring,” she said.
No matter where she looks inside the chapel, she’s reminded of her husband Aaron.
"He would be standing in front of God’s people,” she said.
Aaron was heading to the church one year ago to prepare for his next sermon.
“Seeing that day coming on the calendar is really tough,” Abbie said.
He was killed by a reckless driver who blew four red lights at 70 miles per hour less than a mile away.
“Every morning I wake up and I am a result of reckless driving,” she said. “Every night I go to bed and I think about what I’ve lost and what I have to face the next day because of reckless driving.”
For Abbie, one year without her husband pales in comparison to the pain of watching her kids live without their dad.
“My kids deserve to have their dad there,” Abbie said. “Hannah had to go to homecoming this year and she wore her daddy-daughter necklace because her dad wasn’t going to be there to take pictures with her at homecoming. And that’s probably my biggest source of sadness is for my children.”
Last spring, Abbie took that pain to the state capitol to advocate for change.
“Are you glad you decided to go to Madison?” Jordan asked.
“I am. I can look back and say I am proud of what I did,” she replied.
Abbie was credited by lawmakers for being a major reason why two bills were signed into law.
But in the months since, Abbie has learned those laws have been less effective that she hoped.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t heartbreaking,” she said.
One law in part is designed to double jail time for reckless drivers who cause serious injuries. Court data shows it’s a felony that’s rarely used in Milwaukee County. A TMJ4 report found only a dozen people were convicted of reckless driving causing great bodily home from 2019 through 2022.
“How does that stack up against what you were hoping?” Jordan asked.
“It doesn’t stack up,” she replied.
The other new law allows cities to tow reckless drivers’ cars if they haven’t paid previous reckless driving tickets. Milwaukee and West Allis police say they have yet to tow a single vehicle under the ordinance.
Glendale’s police chief says it’s nearly impossible for officers to quickly determine whether previous traffic tickets have been paid.
“They’re calling that a big loophole. Do you wish that would have been caught before this was signed into law?” Jordan asked.
"Absolutely,” Abbie replied. “Now's the time now to be reactive and to get those brilliant minds in place to come up with a better protocol."
Lawmakers are already in the process of reworking reckless driving legislation.
One bill would allow law enforcement to tow and impound a vehicle if the driver is caught egregiously violating traffic laws, like going 25 miles per hour over the limit.
Another would make it a crime if a driver is caught multiple times with a suspended or revoked license, something that happened 8,000 times last year in Milwaukee.
Abbie says she supports both.
"We've got to do something,” she said. “We can't just sit by and let it spiral out of control."
She also looks forward to the prospect of providing 15,000 low-income teens with free driver’s ed. The state already set aside the funds. Now, they’re figuring out how to administer the grants.
"We've got a mountain to climb and it's going to be slow-going and it's going to take lots of years to chip away at it,” she said.
While Abbie’s days of sharing her story at the capitol may be behind her, she feels confident current and future reckless driving legislation will have Aaron in mind.
"Maybe the seed is being planted and later it's going to reap its benefits,” she said.
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