Her son died in a Parkland crosswalk. Now she’s on a mission to increase bike safety
No parent should have to go through what Amber Weilert is enduring. No one should receive a phone call like the one Weilert answered early last week, telling them to come quickly but leaving the most important part unspoken: that the worst has happened.
Weilert, 45, is the mother of 13-year-old Michael Weilert, the boy hit and killed on July 19 while using a crosswalk at a busy Pacific Avenue intersection only a few minutes from the family’s home in Parkland.
Michael was on his bicycle at the time — as he often was, according to his mom — and his preventable death has provided the latest reminder of the daily dangers faced by people walking and biking in our neighborhoods and communities.
Through unimaginable grief and floods of tears, Weilert told The News Tribune that if she’s certain of anything, it’s that her son’s death won’t be in vain.
The funeral is Saturday. After she gets through it, Weilert said she plans to commit herself to fighting for the kind of pedestrian and bicycle safety measures that prevent tragedies like the one that took her son.
It’s not a stand that any mother should have to make, but it’s one that Weilert, amid the pain and anguish, has taken on in Michael’s memory.
“Michael had a huge life ahead of him. He would have done great things. And this is going to be his great thing. I’m going to help him do it because he’s not here to do it himself,” Weilert said Wednesday.
“Michael is going to have a legacy, and that legacy is going to be keeping the kids in this neighborhood safe.”
Prior to the evening of July 19, becoming a vocal advocate for safer streets, stronger pedestrian safety laws and increased driver education isn’t a future Weilert could have imagined. Michael — who loved BMX bikes, camping and his family — had returned from a trip to Ocean Shores that day. After showering, Weilert said he hopped on his bike and headed for a friend’s house. She estimates that the crosswalk where he died — which stretches across Pacific Avenue at 134th Street South — is roughly a half mile away. It’s a trip he’d made numerous times before.
Weilert recalls making sure her son’s phone was fully charged before he left — like she always does — and making sure he knew just how much she loved him.
It’s the last time Weilert saw her son alive. By the time she arrived on the scene, she was in shock. All she saw were firetrucks, flashing lights and a white sheet spread in the middle of the road, she said.
Michael was gone, just like she feared, just like the woman on the phone couldn’t tell her.
According to the Washington State Patrol, Michael activated the crosswalk’s flashing signals, but the driver failed to yield and hit him.
He would have entered eight grade at Keithley Middle School this fall, a boy everyone loved to be around, his mother said.
“Before Michael left I gave him, like, way too many kisses — for no reason. I just grabbed him and said, ‘I love you so much, Michael,’ and kissed his little face, everywhere,” Weilert remembered.
“I knew something was wrong. You don’t just get a call like that,” she continued.
“I was just panicking. My whole body felt like it was on fire.”
According to the Washington State Patrol, the investigation into Michael’s death is ongoing, including the hanging question of whether the driver behind the wheel of the Jeep Wrangler that struck him will be charged.
On Wednesday, Weilert said the family — which includes Michael’s father, David, and four siblings — is focused on planning the funeral and remembering Michael. There will come a time for thinking and talking about all that, but not now, she said.
Like Weilert, pedestrian and bicycle safety advocates across the region like Paul Tolmé, a spokesperson for Cascade Bicycle Club, say that Micheal’s death never should have happened. There are numerous sensible roadway improvements and other policy choices that could help prevent deaths like these, Tolmé told The News Tribune, like clearer crosswalk identifications, road narrowing designs, designated bike routes, improved driver education and more robust enforcement of traffic laws.
Overall, Tolmé point to data indicating that the number of people walking and riding bikes who have been killed by automobiles has increased across the country in recent years. In Washington, according to the state Department of Transportation, fatalities among pedestrians and people riding bicycles were 48.1% higher in 2020 than a decade earlier.
Tolmé described it as an “epidemic” of deaths that could be been prevented if only elected leaders and policy makers would act with the kind of urgency the situation demands.
It’s a fight Weilert says she’s gearing up for.
While she’s new to pedestrian and bicycle safety advocacy work, she doesn’t have a choice, she said.
It’s what Michael would want, she firmly believes.
“The roads are not just for cars, and everybody needs to be able to use them,” Weilert said.
“Kids need to be able to use them, and it needs to be safe.”
This story was originally published July 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
