MILWAUKEE — Splintered bark and shattered glass are all that remain from a deadly crash near 5th and Keefe Friday evening, mirroring the shattered hearts of 17-year-old Zariyah Williams' family.
“We had to lose her?” Tiyanna Armstrong, Williams's cousin said. “Why her? Why out of everybody in the car, her? It just hurts so bad. I don’t know.”
Williams died at the scene of Friday morning’s crash. Police report a 23-year-old man was speeding and swerving on Keefe around 5:00 a.m. when he lost control and slammed into a tree. The impact of the crash nearly severed the trunk from the vehicle.
According to the medical examiner’s report, Williams and the other five occupants in the vehicle were not wearing seat belts. The driver initially ran from the scene but returned and was later arrested, according to police. He and three others were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Williams didn’t have a chance to make it to the hospital. Armstrong’s big cousin was gone and with her, a strong support system.
“Her personality,” Armstrong said. “Being the life of the party. Gassing people up. She was always there for somebody. Oh my god.”
Williams’ death marks eleven people under the age of 18 killed in car crashes through the first six months of 2023. It’s nearly four times as many as all of 2022 (3) and the same amount as all of 2021 (11).
“Every day,” Ricky Grandberry said. “Every single day.”
Grandberry is fed up with hearing about these tragedies. It makes him sick to his stomach, he says. It needs to stop.
“Y’all have to come out and talk about a new statistic of something that happened in one of our communities with our children,” Grandberry said. “We need to realize, it might be my baby today, someone else’s baby tomorrow. Maybe your baby, or your baby the next day. It’s got to stop. Let’s talk about how we’re going to stop this.”
One week ago marked one year since the City of Milwaukee signed on to become a Vision Zero city; a nationwide network with the goal to eliminate all traffic deaths and severe injury crashes. In one year, 14 people under the age of 18 have died in Milwaukee car crashes.
However, 5th and Keefe does not appear to be a problematic intersection compared to other corridors the I-Team has focused on as part of Project: Drive Safer in the past. Friday’s death is the first at the intersection since at least 2001, according to Wisconsin Community Maps statistics.
The I-Team reached out to Vision Zero Director Jessica Wineberg for comment about the intersection and corridor, but she did not respond by deadline.
“Let’s get some results,” Grandberry said. “Let’s go home and talk to our babies to figure out who can better friends for them. How they need to listen to us so better decisions can be made. If they got friends going through stuff, bring them to their parents to help. We supposed to be a village and a family and we done went away from that.”
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