It’s been three years since a flatbed truck struck and killed Daniel Langenkamp’s wife. The grief hasn’t subsided.

“You never get used to losing your spouse and the mother of your children. It is something that I feel every moment,” Langenkamp said.

He sat next to a shrine in his living room that he and his two sons, now 11 and 13, made in memory of Sarah Langenkamp — with family photos, pieces of her jewelry and handwritten notes from her reminding the boys to do their homework.

Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, a foreign service officer, died on River Road in Bethesda in August 2022 as she biked home from a back-to-school event at Wood Acres Elementary School. She was 42 and had been back in the U.S. for only a few weeks. She, her husband and their sons had left Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, looking for safety in Montgomery County.

That irony fueled headlines about her death.

In the months that followed, Daniel Langenkamp thought of ways to keep his wife’s memory alive and prevent more deaths and accidents among people who love to bike.

In Sarah’s honor, he launched the first Ride for Your Life with the Washington Area Bicyclist Association on Nov. 19, 2022.

Langenkamp is hosting his fourth ride Sunday. Participants will bike and walk from downtown Bethesda to the Lincoln Memorial — about 8.5 miles — to remember Sarah and others killed in traffic incidents. The ride is a political rally in motion, culminating in speeches outside the memorial — pleas for better-funded safety projects for cyclists and pedestrians.

He expects more than 1,100 people.

Specifically, Langenkamp is pushing for passage of the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Safety Act. Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the measure would allow states and localities to use up to 10% of federal Highway Safety Improvement Program funding for bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly lanes and other infrastructure.

“With big help from Dan and the rest of their family, our legislation now has substantial bipartisan and bicameral support,” said Raskin, who said he’s determined to see it pass in her memory.

Twelve of the bill’s 21 cosponsors are Republicans.

Making the roads safer should appeal to everyone, Langenkamp said.

“I don’t know anybody that hasn’t been impacted by traffic crashes in one way or another,” he said. “The problem is that people kind of accept it as a norm, like the cost of doing life in America.”

John Padilla of Arlington, Virginia, an avid cyclist and State Department employee who has participated in the ride each year, will volunteer as an organizer for the first time. He said Sarah Langenkamp’s story haunts him.

“I ride a lot, and this could happen to me and friends,” Padilla said. “I finally got off my butt and decided to do something.”

‘Senseless’

Daniel Langenkamp is trying to draw attention to Raskin’s bill and one in the Maryland General Assembly, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher, that would create a pilot program for in-vehicle monitoring of drivers who often break the speed limit. Similar programs are in place in Washington and Virginia.

Langenkamp has had success working with elected officials. The county’s Safe Streets law, passed in 2023, was inspired in part by Sarah Langenkamp’s death. And in 2024 Gov. Wes Moore signed the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Memorial Act into law. It imposed the same penalties for hitting a cyclist in a bike lane as for hitting a pedestrian or cyclist in a crosswalk — up to two months in jail and a fine up to $2,000.

Daniel Langenkamp advocated for the act after the driver who struck and killed his wife was sentenced to 150 hours of community service — a shockingly light punishment, in his view.

He retired early from his federal job to better advocate for safer roadways and walkways — and parent his children.

He can’t help think of what their life would have been were his wife still here.

“We would have been living abroad,” he said. “Now I’m trying to figure out how to get both my kids to soccer practice by myself tonight while I’m organizing this ride.”

He said he’s angry about Sarah’s death but also that fatal accidents keep happening without change following.

In September, James Evert Anderson, 16, of Kensington was killed after he was struck by a vehicle while crossing the street. Last month, 11-year-old Summer Lim was struck and killed by a school bus while riding her bike home from Earle B. Wood Middle School in Rockville.

“It’s senseless,” Langenkamp said. “We can do better than this.”