Photo by Tom Jenz
Car Accident at 35th St & Townsend - Milwaukee
Car Accident at 35th Street and Townsend Street in MIlwaukee
As of mid-November 2025, Milwaukee County has counted 64 traffic fatalities, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. In 2024, we endured more than 16,000 crashes and 12,543 reckless-driving citations, including 64 fatal wrecks. The years before were even worse: 91 deaths in 2023, and 110 in 2022. These numbers seem to rise and fall but never let up enough to feel hopeful.
Statistics, though, only skim the surface. In my reporting, what stays with me are the faces and voices of the people left behind, the parents, siblings and children who now live with an empty chair at the dinner table. On Saturday, November 15th, at the World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims at the Century City Tower on North 27th Street, I stood among the victims’ families. I listened as they described the moment their lives broke apart, and the quiet strength it takes just to get through each day.
These are some of their stories.
Mariah Johnson
“My little brother was killed in a car crash on 60th and Hampton, by a car driving 120 miles an hour down the street.”
When Mariah Johnson talks about that day, her voice doesn’t harden the way some people’s do. It softens. Her brother, Jerrold Wellinger, had been driving home with his friend, Davante Gaines, when a driver racing with another car slammed into them. Both young men were just 22 when they died. The reckless driver’s speed was later clocked at 120 mph. It happened on August 7, 2021, but for Johnson, the shock of it never really settled into the past.
“The moment my brother died, I felt like my light turned out a little bit,” said Johnson, the mother of two girls. “But I also think that I went through this so I can make a difference in my city, take my pain of the loss of my brother and turn it into something that helps other people.”
In the months that followed, Johnson did not retreat from the world, rather she stepped further into it. She became a community advocate, someone willing to sit with kids and talk about reckless driving, to share the story she never imagined she’d have to carry. She now works with teens as a program coordinator for the PEAK Initiative, which uses a long-term approach to character development rooted in social-emotional learning and hands-on experience.
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Through PEAK, Johnson has helped organize block parties and neighborhood pop-ups, small but powerful spaces where she invites residents to consider how their choices behind the wheel ripple out to strangers and loved ones alike. “I tell them, it’s not just speeding,” she said, “it’s driving while on your phone or even just driving 10 miles over the speed limit. We have to realize that we are all part of the problem, but we’re also the solution.”
Marty Dunmore
“In September 2024, my husband, William, and I received a call that no parent ever wants to hear. We were told that our precious baby, Talise, was hit while attempting to cross the street on 76th Street near Good Hope Road. We arrived to find Talise’ body covered with a tarp. She had not survived. The woman driver who killed our daughter had been driving over 80mph. She admitted she had drunk four 12-ounce beers and five double shots of tequila. Reckless driving, drunk driving, and speeding are all bad choices and are killing people we love.”
Later on in court, prosecutors stated the driver had been charged with Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) at least three times before the deadly crash that killed Talise. That reckless driver is now in prison.
Dunmore and her husband have lost their three daughters to death, one to cancer, one to a shooting, and the third to a drunk driver.
Jasmine Knowles
“On Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, Tyron Henry, my soul mate, took a motorcycle from the garage and never made it home that day because he was killed on 52nd and Hampton by a reckless driver, a 60-year-old man. Ty was an artist, could sing and write and build anything. He was a son, a father and my soul mate. We have three kids, but the kids will grow up with no father. This reckless driving has got to stop.”
On that fateful day, a vehicle was making a left turn when it collided with Tyron Henry, the motorcyclist who was going straight. The reckless driver of that vehicle remained on the scene and cooperated with the investigation.
Chloe Handrich
“I am trying to piece my life back together after the terrible accident in downtown Milwaukee on July 20, 2025. I underwent two surgeries and seven blood transfusions. I shattered my pelvis and sacrum. I had a tibia plateau, so my tibia was completely shattered. I had a punctured and collapsed lung and extreme internal bleeding. I had a grade four liver laceration. I had a severe concussion and hematoma, bruises, road rash all over my body. I now have five screws holding my pelvis together. I have a donor cadaver bone in my tibia. For 15 days in the hospital, I knew the feeling of extreme pain. I knew the feeling of fighting for your life.”
Here is what happened. On July 20, 2025, a car with a woman driver drove through wooden reflector barricades intended to block Water Street off from late night traffic. Chloe Handrich and her close friend Samantha Zganjar were crossing the street. The car plowed through the barricades, slamming into the two young women. They survived the crash but were left with life-changing injuries.
Zgangar later said, “I had a huge gash in the back of my head that required 12 stitches. My top five teeth were knocked out_one lodged up into my nose. My nose was broken. My hand was completely destroyed. I had to get surgery on that hand.” Zganjar still needs oral surgery to replace her top row of teeth.
Handrich said, “After the accident, I had to learn how to live my life in constant pain. My parents’ dining room was converted into a hospital room with all the equipment. My mom and sister took turns taking care of me. I am a 22-year-old woman, victim of a reckless driver who took away my steps into adulthood. That night, we were out celebrating my college graduation from UW La Crosse. I majored in psychology and biology. I also had gone to Physician’s Assistant School for Healthcare. I carry the torch against reckless driving.”
The woman driver was cited for failing to yield to the blocking barriers and for not having car insurance and revoked/suspended registration. No sobriety test was given. She received a ticket and was allowed to drive her car home.
“I do not have closure on this issue,” said Handrich.
Sheadrean Blanks
“My daughter, Keiairra Travis, got run over and killed, October 11, 2025. She was 25 years old. She was out enjoying her birthday with her twin sister and their friends. On 76th and Good Hope, she was struck and killed by a speeding driver when she was trying to cross the street. The 34-year-old driver left the scene, but was later arrested. A few days later, a woman I only know in passing, Miss Jackie, stared at me and said, ‘Your twin is in heaven, and she wants you to know that.’ Miss Jackie didn’t even know my kids, but she gave me a hug, and she said, ‘Keiairra is in heaven and she is watching over you.’ That has helped me with my grief.”
Blanks said that Keiairra loved to write and sing her own music. “She would light up every room with her presence. She had a little bit of me in her. Always smiling and always joyful. She touched hearts. She cared deeply for her family. She was born before just her twin sister.” Keiairra was the second youngest of seven kids.
The Milwaukee Police Department said in a statement that an unknown vehicle speeding south on North 76th Street struck Travis, who was crossing at the street's 7200 block, around 12:26 a.m. on October 11. A 34-year-old man, Shanton Lay Jr., was later arrested in connection with the crash. Lay confessed to driving the car, telling investigators he was scared and fled the scene after the impact. He also admitted his driver's license was revoked at the time due to unpaid tickets and a prior DUI offense.
Gloria Shaw
“On August 28, 2022, my son, Xavier, was walking across the street, minding his own business, walking with the traffic light, and a driver plowed him down and left him to die.”
Gloria Shaw's son, Xaiver Davis, 23, was plowed into while crossing at 6th and Juneau near Fiserv Forum. He died in the hospital. “I’ll never forget when they came in and told me that he didn’t make it,” Shaw said. “I felt like the breath had been taken out of my body. He was an amazing young man with a very bright future ahead of him in TV video production. And he would’ve done anything for anybody, because that’s the type of guy he was. Xavier was our glue, he was, and he will be greatly missed.”
Police say a driver in a pickup truck ran a red light, struck Davis, and drove off. It was a black 2021-22 Dodge Ram 1500 TRX with amber lights in the hood scoop, flashing amber lights on both side mirrors and, possibly, flashing headlights. The driver still has not been found.
“I still don’t sleep, maybe three, four hours a day,” Shaw said. “He can never be replaced. To know Xaiver was to love him. To me, he was perfect.” And he was Shaw's only son. She said, “He dreamed of becoming a photojournalist and capture life's precious moments, along with people's hearts.”
Marlo Moreno
“I am 49, and I’ve lost three loved ones. The first was my 9-year-old cousin. She was killed on Mother’s Day by a drunk driver in Milwaukee. I was 13 at the time. In 1995, I lost a second cousin, Julius. He was dragracing with his best friend, and they were racing against another car. They hit a pole, and he died at 27 years old. Our family took it very hard. Julius was beloved by family members. I am friends with Gloria Shaw who lost her only son, Xavier. That loss is a real heartbreak, watching Gloria lose the love of her life. There is no closure because the reckless driver has never come forward and admitted responsibility. Gloria suffers every day because the highly irresponsible behavior of one individual. This reckless driving still goes on. Just yesterday, I was driving a busy street, and I had to stop and brake because a guy shot by in the third lane going about 60mph. Will they ever learn?”
Jeremy Morse
“I lost my nephew, Amari Smith, to a reckless driver who was being chased by the police, and he ran a red-light and T-boned Amari’s car. Happened on February 25, 2024, 20th and Burleigh. It’s been an emotional roller coaster for my family members, good and bad memories, depression. I try to support my sister because Amari was her last child. Amari was only 30 when he died. He was a barber and loved volunteer work.”
Robert Lavelle Jones wrecked that promising life. Jones admitted he was the one behind the wheel of the car that led police on a high-speed chase through Milwaukee on February 25 and crashed into Smith’s vehicle at 20th and Burleigh streets. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Ruth Ehrgott
“Erin Mogensen was my beautiful 32-year-old daughter and was eight weeks pregnant with Baby M. The accident happened two years ago. Her car was struck when she was turning left on 100th and Capitol Drive. Another car ran the red light and and slammed into her. The driver was later apprehended and sentenced to prison for both the deaths of my daughter and Baby M. For me, it was devastating. Every day, we mourn what Erin and her baby could have been.”
Mogensen and her unborn baby were killed when someone fleeing a traffic stop ran a red light and crashed into Mogensen's car at Lisbon and Capitol Drive. Frank Mosley, 21, was charged with three felonies in Mogensen’s death and the death of her child. He had been driving 70mph. Gas station surveillance video showed him running away from the scene. He was later apprehended and sentenced to 40 years in prison
“Through this World Day of Remembrance,” Ehrgott said, “I’ve been able to connect with family members who have lost loved ones to reckless driving. Shortly after Erin died, my friend Jeanine Lupo founded Enough is Enough - A Legacy for Erin. Enough is Enough has made a difference.
Jeanine Lupo, President of Enough is Enough
“Enough is Enough is an advocacy group,” Lupo said. “Our plan is to eliminate criminal reckless driving. Our most important goal is to demand accountability in the criminal justice system. We have a program called Court Watch where we monitor, record and report cases involved in fleeing police and reckless driving. We follow these cases through the court system and publish the results of what the judges do in sentencing. The judge is the final gatekeeper in keeping these criminals from being released. Over a five-month period, we found that the judges’ sentences remain far apart from the DA/State's recommendation, generally about 68% more lenient. This means many criminally reckless drivers are getting lenient sentences. We are advocating for tougher sentencing because a lot of reckless drivers who are convicted felons get probation. Some are driving stolen cars. We are trying to show these judges that there is a victim on the other side, grieving family members. The system is not working if criminals aren’t properly punished.”
Lupo is tracking hundreds of felony reckless driving cases in Milwaukee County with the help of a retired prosecutor. She said, “When there's a reckless driving incident, I look up the person who's responsible, and I see a litany of previous charges for that person. There's kind of a revolving door, and I think that transparency around the accountability for both the criminals and the justice system is needed.”
Can Car Crashes be Reduced?
Before I left the event, I spoke with Jessica Wineberg, the City of Milwaukee policy director at the Office of Vision Zero. She said, “Today is the World Day of Remembrance for victims of traffic violence all over the world. Here in Milwaukee, the Coalition for Safe Driving has put on this event. We are connecting people who have lost loved ones to traffic violence and with resources who support the community. This event is very important to them.”
I later spoke with Mayor Cavalier Johnson. He is advocating traffic monitor cameras to be placed at busy intersections, but he needs approval from the state legislature.
The mayor told me that traffic violation cameras will curb reckless driving, and he supports state legislation that would allow for the installation of up to 75 cameras. The proposed Safe Streets Save Lives Act (Senate Bill 375) would enable the city to issue tickets by mail for red light running and speeding more than 15 mph over the limit. He said, “ATE programs are especially effective in large cities and have reduced all crashes by 54% and injury crashes by 47% on urban roads.”
As for family members of car crash victims, they are for anything that would help reduce reckless drivers killing and injuring innocent victims.
