MILWAUKEE — A gifted pastor.
“He had a way looking you in the eye and making you feel like he had known you from kindergarten,” Abbie Strong said.
A devoted father.
"He dropped them off everyday, he picked them up everyday from school,” Abbie said.
And a loving husband.
“He was superman,” Abbie added.
Three roles Abbie says her husband Aaron embraced in life.
"On the day that he died, he went to the store and he bought me a bouquet of flowers,” she said. “So when I came home from the hospital that day, there was a bouquet of flowers waiting for me on the table. Just because he wanted to show that he loved me."
Aaron was driving to work at Grace Lutheran Church on October 12 when police say a reckless and drunk driver blew through five red lights at 70 miles per hour and smashed into Aaron’s car in front of the Milwaukee County Courthouse. The driver told investigators he was running late for jury duty.
"A blood alcohol of .193 at 9 o'clock in the morning is just mind-blowing for me,” Abbie said. “I can't wrap my brain around it."
Abbie rushed to the hospital to learn her husband was already gone. She says the hardest part was telling her two children.
"It was the worst experience of my life,” she said. “I still hear those cries and shrieks in the car every day."
After months of grief and devastation, Abbie was invited to the Wisconsin State Capitol building to call for change.
"I knew my husband was with me and I knew he was silently cheering me on and saying, 'go do this, I'm with you and you will get the right words to be an impact on this,’” Abbie said.
She shared her personal story multiple times with lawmakers to advocate for a pair of bills. One would double reckless driving fines and maximum jail sentences. Another allows cities to tow vehicles of repeat reckless drivers whose prior fines remain unpaid.
As the tow ordinance bill crossed the finish line, Abbie was invited to stand by Gov. Tony Evers on Monday as he signed it into law. The other bill is expected to follow later this month.
“Which of those two bills do you think will be more impactful?” TMJ4 reporter Ben Jordan asked.
"I think the increased jail time and the increased fines,” Abbie replied. "Even if it's for a temporary pain in the pocketbook, it's maybe helping them learn a lesson for future driving episodes."
State leaders on both sides of the aisle celebrated Abbie’s courage as the main reason why the legislation garnered so much support. But Abbie knows those two bills alone won’t end the problem. She believes the next effort should focus on state-funded driver’s education for all high school students.
"Parents are having the opportunity to waive driver's ed and not having these students in a classroom for 30 hours learning from these driver's education instructors,” she said. “We need to do more to have protocols in place and follow through on them."
It’s a path Abbie never would have wanted to go down six months ago.
“I don't want his death to be in vain,” she said. “I don’t want this to be for just adding to the statistics of more reckless deaths in Wisconsin. I want this to have purpose.”
She feels comfort in knowing it’s creating a legacy for her husband that could have a lasting impact.
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