Parents turn daughter's tragic death into push for safer biking infrastructure

If something good can come from an awful tragedy, Dirk and Terry Debbink are determined to make it happen.

Their daughter Sarah Debbink Langenkamp — a devoted mother and diplomat — was hit and killed while riding her bike in Maryland in 2022. Now Sarah's name is synonymous with a bill moving through Congress to make biking safer across America.

It's hard to imagine Sarah not on a bike. She was an avid cyclist from her childhood days in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, through her career as a diplomat traveling the world and as a wife and working mother.

"She was an incredible diplomat," Dirk Debbink said.

Parents turn daughter's tragic death into push for safer biking infrastructure

Her parents always worried when work would take Sarah to countries facing political turmoil. So when Sarah and he