As Reckless Driving Victims Mourn, Officials Work to Slow Traffic

People gathered into the crowded Milwaukee County courtroom gallery for Frank Mosley’s sentencing Nov. 21, after he was found guilty of recklessly killing Erin Mogensen and her unborn child in a hit-and-run crash.

A year earlier, Wauwatosa police attempted to stop 20-year-old Mosley for driving without plates, according to the criminal complaint. He fled, speeding down W. Capitol Drive. Soon after, he ran a red light, colliding with the driver’s side of Mogensen’s Toyota at 61 mph. Five seconds earlier, he had been driving 116 mph. Mosley then took off on foot. Mogensen and her unborn child died at the scene.

“We will never be whole again,” said Ruth Ehrgott, Mogensen’s mother, at the hearing, “but we hope that justice will be served.”

Members of Mogensen’s family shared stories about her during the hearing, like baking Christmas cookies with her, or how she often volunteered at the Milwaukee County Zoo.

“I still wake up daily thinking about something that I would love to talk to her about, a movie or a musical coming out that I know she would love,” said her sister, Sarah Drew.

“It wasn’t something I meant to do,” Mosley said to the judge before being sentenced. “It was a mistake. I wish I can take it back, but I can’t.”

Mosley was sentenced to 40 years in prison, 20 years for each count of reckless homicide.

Seventy-nine people died from traffic crashes in 2023 in Milwaukee, according to city data. This year, 65 people have died as of Dec. 9. 2024 is on track to be lower than last year, yet to many, more still needs to be done.

The Saturday before the sentencing hearing, people met to support each other and remember the lives lost on Milwaukee’s roads during the World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims. The event was held at the PEAK Initiative by the Coalition for Safe Driving.

“We’re going to work our hardest to continue to fight reckless driving, to promote safe driving,” said Alderman Russell Stamper II.

Many people told stories of loved ones they had lost, including Ruth Ehrgott.

“We must keep sharing our stories and speak the names of our loved ones, so that the world remembers them and that they existed, so that the world feels the urgency to act,” she said.

Nine months ago, Ehrgott and other family and friends of Mogensen’s started a group called Enough is Enough: a Legacy for Erin.

A large part of Enough is Enough is its court watch program, where volunteers track sentencing decisions in cases involving reckless driving.

“We go to court, we select cases to sit and observe,” said Jeanne Lupo, Enough is Enough’s president. “We then record what happens for those cases.”

She estimated the group, which has grown to more than 20 members, has observed over 100 sentencing hearings, and has personally attended more than 50. She plans on releasing the group’s first report in the next few weeks.

Lupo said that much of the group’s focus is on repeat offenders.

“We don’t want to throw everybody in jail,” she said. “But we would like there to be a stricter sentence to begin with, so they learn from their mistakes and so hopefully they’re not going to commit them over and over.”

The group also successfully lobbied for Senate Bill 514, which established mandatory minimums for people who seriously injure or kill someone while fleeing police. The bill was signed into law in March.

Another group at the Remembrance Day event was Vision Zero, a city initiative adopted in 2022 with a goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2037.

“A lot of people think that traffic accidents are something we just need to put up with and the streets are designed the way they are for a good reason,” said David Flowers, an outreach assistant with Vision Zero, “but the truth is that we need to rethink the way we deal with streets in our communities.”

Vision Zero focuses on both road design and enforcement to create safer streets.

“So traffic calming, just slowing down, trying to encourage people to do that–that’s what Vision Zero is about,” said Flowers.

There are currently seven traffic calming projects under construction, and eight pending construction, according to the city’s Department of Public Works data.