Traffic safety advocates and Manatee law enforcement honor road traffic victims

Law enforcement, traffic safety advocates and families of traffic victims gathered together in Bradenton on Friday for World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.

The intersection of State Road 70 at Tara Boulevard, where the commemoration was held, is the very same spot where Melissa Wandall lost her husband, Mark, in a car crash caused by a red-light runner. His death two decades ago came less than three weeks before she would give birth to their daughter.

“One decision can alter a lifetime when you disobey a traffic law," said Wandall, president of National Coalition for Safe Roads.

The day serves to honor loved ones who died in traffic accidents and to push toward achieving Florida’s Target Zero initiative to reduce the number of transportation-related injuries and deaths across Florida to zero.

As of Nov. 18, Manatee County has had 5,476 crashes that resulted in 59 fatalities in 2023, and Sarasota County has had 5,750 crashes that resulted in 44 fatalities, according to crash data from the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

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Cpl. David Brunner with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle, remembers investigating the Wandell crash. It was his job to deliver the news that Melissa Wandell's husband was killed by a distracted driver, who had taken their eyes off the road while picking up a dropped sippy cup.

In one-tenth of a second, this distracted driver had taken a husband, a soon-to-be father from the family who loved him.

“I can tell you thousands of stories of these crashes and the impact on the drivers, their passengers and their loved ones, but that does not even begin to touch the real impact – the devastation of those who felt the loss left behind,” Brunner said.

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While car technology has advanced, so have the increased distractions that drivers face, Brunner said. Every fatal car crash has one common factor in causation – the human element.

“From cellphones, infotainment centers and automated vehicles, there is still someone in charge of a 4,000-pound weapon that’s about to kill and destroy anything it touched,” Brunner said.

Brunner said the best way to decrease fatal accidents is to implement stricter laws to prevent distracted drivers from using their phones, to increase enforcement of driving laws and to continue education on the detrimental impacts of driving while distracted, drunk or overly aggressive.

“The roadways today are becoming more and more like a war zone,” Brunner said. “Everyone has seen that reckless driver darting in and out of traffic with their cellphone in their hand … We need to find ways to stop these dangerous drivers before they kill themselves or someone else.”

Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells recalled haunting memories of telling families that their loved ones died at the hands of another driver while serving as a state trooper for the Florida Highway Patrol and Traffic Homicide Investigation Unit early in his career.

As Manatee County continues to grow, so have instances of distracted and careless drivers, Wells said.

“I wish that we could go out here each and every day as law enforcement and ensure that we’re going to stop every driver that was distracted, speeding or running red lights, but we all know that’s not going to happen,” Wells said.

“It’s going to take the entire community to understand that lives are changed in one split-second. If we’re going to truly honor the memory of those that have been killed off the roadways then we have to get serious about the way that we send that message.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manatee sheriff on traffic victims remembrance day: Lives are changed