Photo Credit: Tom Jenz
Reckless driving in Milwaukee. Anyone who regularly drives the streets has probably seen the careless drivers. Speeding, road rage, passing on the right, jumping the curb, running a red light, ignoring pedestrians, tailgating. Milwaukee saw 51 fatal crashes attributed to reckless driving in 2019. In 2020, that number skyrocketed to 77, a 51% increase. In 2021, it’s on the rise again. Fatal accidents in the city year-to-date are up 41%, 24 fatalities as of Memorial Day weekend.
Black activist Tracey Dent, head of Voices Against Violence, decided to do something about this disturbing problem. He called on local talent to create a song and video, “Over the Limit,” for the benefit of the public. To learn more, I met Tracey Dent in a small recording studio located in an artist’s house on the near North Side.
Tracey, you and your artists are creating a music video that will address reckless driving and encourage safe driving.
The song is called “Over the Limit (Slow Down).” We are drawing attention to the hazards of reckless driving.
Who wrote the song? Who are the performing artists?
The idea began about six months ago after a driver in a stolen car was speeding, and he hit and killed a 7-year old girl on Calumet and 76th. The artist, Porchia Viv-Vid Stinson, is close to the girl’s father. Viv Vid suggested doing a song about reckless driving because something needed to be done. But COVID was raging, and we had to postpone the project, but now it’s finally happening.
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I put out a call to action to artists. Besides Viv Vid. we have 16-year old singer Crysy B and Mani Imani from the movie 53206. And we have Quinlan Bishop whose artist name is QB Speaks. Doc Holiday is the producer and he did the mixing and assembly. They all wrote their own lyrics. The catchy chorus was written by QB Speaks. All I did was a bring the talent together, and they made the powerful song.
Making the Video
A couple weeks later, Tracey Dent and I met at 76th and Calumet, the scene of the brutal hit and run killing on October 28, 2020, and where the music video was being created. A 7-year-old girl, Londyn Quesada, died in a tragic hit-and-run crash. Londyn was in the car with her mom when another car crashed into them, ejecting Londyn and leaving her mom with serious injuries.
Walk me through the sequence of events that led up to the accident.
The music video calls attention to reckless driving through a real life tragedy. We recreate the incident that resulted in the death of Londyn. We show a car being stolen, a police chase, and then the hit and run. We also show the police chasing the suspects who ran away from the car.
What is the goal of the video?
It is part of an overall campaign to raise awareness of this terrible problem in Milwaukee. Our message is that reckless driving is not worth it, not worth stealing cars, speeding, risking lives. This campaign is under the umbrella of my organization, Voices Against Violencw.
"OVER THE LIMIT" CHORUS
No one’s safe when you drive over the limit
It don’t belong to you so why you even in it
Before you make that mistake think twice
Is it really worth ruining your life
