The event highlighted the ongoing crisis of traffic deaths in Virginia, where crashes claimed 918 lives in 2024 a slight increase from 908 deaths in 2023, according to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.

"Connor's death, like so many others, was 100% preventable. And that loss changed every single part of my life," said Tammy McGee, executive director of the Gweedo Memorial Foundation, an advocacy nonprofit created to honor her 16-year-old son who was killed in a crash caused by an unlicensed, reckless driver.

The memorial event was organized in part by McGee's foundation and emphasized that traffic fatalities represent more than statistics they are real people with families and futures cut short.

Meredith Spies, who lost her mother to a distracted driver six years ago, shared he

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