Crash Victim's Sister Scolds Lawmakers For Infrastructure Inaction
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- A Minnesota woman who lost her sister in a car crash, says state lawmakers are putting politics before people's lives.
"If they do not pass legislation to fix this problem, blood is on their hands," Angela Erickson said.
Erickson's sister, Paige Duncan, died in February when her car slid on ice on Highway 12. A stretch of the highway in the west metro has seen nearly two-dozen fatal crashes in just the last five years.
This legislative session, lawmakers hoped for $15 million to improve safety, but that funding died Sunday night when lawmakers failed to pass a transportation bill before the midnight deadline.
"There are so many people who are angry," Erickson said.
Add anger to the list of emotions Erickson has been wrestling with. It's been three months since Paige was killed en route to babysit her niece, Angela's daughter.
"I'll have to forever explain to my daughter where her Auntie Paige is," she said. "The gaping hole that is formed so suddenly, it's raw and it's just there's nothing that fills that hole well."
Erickson is far from alone. In fact, the officer in charge of that stretch of highway has a slideshow of their faces.
"Most of the citizens I come in contact with everyday say, 'I don't want my children driving on that road,'" West Hennepin Public Safety Department Chief Gary Kroells said. "I tell them to take alternative roads."
So the chief joins a list of baffled survivors who wonder why their representatives can't act.
"Families like mine have spoken out," Erickson said. "The state knows they need to do something about it."
But legislators did not. In a chaotic final few hours of the session, the bill that would have meant concrete dividers and a roundabout for this infamous road didn't make it into law.
"They put their agenda and their politics ahead of doing what is right," Erickson said.
So she's begging legislators for a special session, because so many special moments are gone.
"I'm so heartbroken and disappointed, and I'm so fearful for the next family," she said.
The Highway 12 improvements are rolled into a much larger transportation bill. House Speaker Kurt Daudt says he wants a special session, Governor Dayton says he's open to it but is doubtful it could be settled.