Candles and messages of support were exchanged at O'Brien Park on Sunday afternoon as community members came together on World Day of Remembrance to honor the lives of road traffic victims and bring awareness of sharing the roads.
"It's very emotional, it's very humbling that's the way our community is and this is exactly the way the community was when Chuck was hit by the hit-and-run driver in 2019," Teri Vogel said.
Over the past two years, Teri has attended the World Day of Remembrance event in Boulder, but this year was different as she described feeling called to help organize an event in her hometown of Parker.
"This year, I just thought, okay, I'm going to do it, I'm going to I'm going to see how it turns out," Teri said. "I'm going to see who will come."
During the event, speakers shared stories of their loved ones whose lives were taken on Colorado roadways. The Vogel family was able to share the legacy of Edward "Chuck" Vogel who was struck in a hit-and-run crash on July 4, 2019.
"We would have been married 41 years within just a couple of weeks after he was killed and Chuck was a man of great passion," Teri said.
During the time of the crash, the Vogel family spoke with Denver7 describing the immense pain of losing Chuck who was not only loved by the community but also was a husband, father, and soon-to-be grandfather.
"He had only been on his bike for two minutes and 36 seconds, according to the Garmin, before he was hit by this hit-and-run driver," Teri said.
The event in Parker not only memorialized those whose lives were lost on the roads but also helped show the local community the impact one has when sharing the roads. Teri directly referenced the current total fatalities in the state of Colorado along with crashes directly in Parker.
"Today, we had 82 candles that represented the 81 crashes or serious injury crashes and the one fatality that has occurred from January 1st through September 30th of this year here in Parker," Teri said.
Law enforcement agencies were also present with members of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and the Parker Police Department sharing messages about ensuring roads are safe.
"The courage I saw for them to come up here, to talk about what happened with them and their family and their loved ones, and what's great is they're trying to do something about it because as you've heard and I've said it, the great majority of these traffic crashes are preventable and it's not going away, we've got to work together [to] do something about it," Douglas County Undersheriff David Walcher said.
Following the heartfelt stories and messages, Teri asked event attendees to take a "moment of action." She explained the online petition asking the Town of Parker for several initiatives to improve roadways, end traffic deaths and serious injuries.
"One of the main ones was the automatic traffic enforcement cameras for speeding and for red light runners, which is a huge problem," Teri explained. "So we're addressing it from the standpoint of the highest volume of vehicles that go through those intersections, which would be three major intersections that we'd like to start with, and that's Parker Road and Pine, Parker Road and Lincoln, and then Parker Road and Main Street."
Other initiatives include increasing crosswalk times at the intersection of Parker Road and Main Street, a formal Vision Zero plan from the city and updated road signs from "Share the Road' to the "3 Feet to Pass" sign.
"I want everybody to remember that driving is a privilege and with it comes great responsibility," Teri said. "We all need to have that mutual respect on the road, whether you're in a car, on a motorcycle, a bike or jogging, everybody deserves to get home safely."
Parker woman hosts Parkers first World Day of Remembrance event
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