Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Months after impaired driver killed 5 cyclists, Vegas advocates still pushing for change

Bike Safety Presser

Yasmina Chavez

Donna Trauger, whose husband Tom was one of five cyclists killed in December 2020 by an impaired driver, gets emotional during a bike safety event on the accident’s six-month anniversary at Las Vegas Cyclery Friday, June 11, 2021.

Donna Trauger had to wait about 10 hours before learning that her husband was one of five cyclists killed last December on U.S. 95 near Searchlight by an impaired driver.

And she wasn’t even told by authorities, she said.

It wasn’t until Thomas Chamberlain Trauger’s smart watch sent her a notification, pinging his location at the Clark County Coroner’s Office, that her fears were confirmed.

“This is how I was informed about what happened that day,” an emotional Donna Trauger said Friday during a bike safety event on the accident’s six-month anniversary hosted by the Southern Nevada Bicycle Coalition, a group that advocates for safer roads for vulnerable users.

Aside from Trauger, age 57, Erin Michelle Ray, 39; Aksoy Ahmet, 48; Michael Todd Murray, 57, and Gerrard Suarez Nieva, 41, also were killed Dec. 10.

Jordan Alexander Barson, 45, was sentenced this week to a minimum of 16 years in a Nevada prison for driving under the influence of methamphetamine causing death.

Trauger met a widow from a victim of a similar tragedy in Maryland, who detailed a vastly different experience.

Five state troopers showed up at her house to deliver the news, including two who specialized in grief counseling. They sat with her and waited for a friend to arrive.

“That’s what should have happened,” Trauger said. “That’s what needs to happen.”

Trauger is calling for a change in how fatal crashes are investigated and how death notifications are given. The Nevada Highway Patrol could not immediately be reached for comment this evening.

“It’s been six months since I lost my husband, my life partner, the father of my children,” said Angela Ahmet, the widow of Aksoy Ahmet,. “We’re broken, nothing will fix that, nothing will bring him back.”

She said citizens must ask themselves what could be done to prevent carnage on roads and highways. People know they shouldn’t do illicit drugs, motorists know they shouldn’t drive impaired, yet it keeps happening.

“The only solace when facing tragedy,” she said, “is to advocate for change.”

She wants industries to strengthen their policies in dealing with employees who drink and drive. Barson was on the job when he slammed into the cyclists.

If a pilot were to board an airplane while intoxicated, she said, one of his colleagues would inform someone. Why is it different for someone driving a 27,000-pound truck?

The coalition touted some of the changes Nevada has made on its roadways, but note the work continues because “we’re not getting through to motorists,” said Keely Brooks, who is in the coalition.

The changes include a law passed in 2011 that requires motorists to give cyclists at least 3 feet of space, and a law that allows cyclists to ride on a full lane of traffic, making Nevada one of five states to have it.

Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones, an avid cyclist, highlighted a county ordinance passed in January that calls for clearer signage to better inform pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists the rules of the road.

State lawmakers also codified road design requirements to make sure every type of user is considered, not just vehicles, Jones said.

“Nothing will bring back the folks who rode their bike that day,” Jones said. “But we want to make sure that as much as we can to prevent these types of tragedies from happening again.”