VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — One year ago, a car crash on North Great Neck Road changed a 17-year-old girl's life forever.
“She texted me at 4:59 and said don’t kill me please, I’m almost home,” said Sedonia Triepel’s mom Carrie.
Three minutes after that text message, someone hit Sedonia who was a standout high school student. She was critically injured.
“She loved crew and cross country and P90X and now we are super happy when she’s able to get on a squat table and do squats,” explained Triepel.
Sedonia’s mom said she wants city leaders to make N. Great Neck Road safer. On Thursday, she and many others walked across the road to raise awareness about the dangers.
For the past 364 days, Carrie Triepel urged city leaders to lower the speed limit, fix the turn lanes and improve the crosswalks. Earlier this year, city engineers said they would put an offset left turn lane near River Road by the end of 2019.
“I’m frustrated because there were plans and there was money allocated to make a change and a schedule set," Triepel said.
Virginia Beach Public Works officials say they couldn’t keep their promise to have this project done by the end of this year. Spokesman Drew Lankford says the project is delayed due to the mass shooting as well as problems with stormwater regulations and some minor changes to the layout of the design.
“Five of the people who were murdered in our department, some of them had a stake in this or would have been involved so it’s just one of those things," Lankford said.
“I certainly think if that were the case, that should have been made more obvious or told to the communities sooner,” Triepel explained.
City leaders said the project is expected to start Jan. 2. Sedonia’s mom is ready for change. Lankford said the improvements will take about 45 days to complete.
“I don’t want it to happen again, period. It’s happened too many times. It’s not just Sedonia," Triepel remarked.