No matter how much time has passed, it’s stood still since April 25, 2012 for John Dudley.

“At 8:40 in the evening, I got the phone call no parent wants to get,” he said.

His son Andrew was riding his bike when a car hit and killed him.

“He was 18, five weeks from graduating high school,” Dudley shared. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about him.”

Dudley represented one of several affected families at the State Capitol on Saturday for World Day Of Remembrance.

Preliminary data from the Minnesota Department of Safety shows 402 people died on state roadways in 2023, and as of Saturday, there have been 402 deaths so far in 2024, meaning the state is on track to surpass last year’s deadly statistic by the end of the year.

Between Nov. 15 and the end of the year in 2023, 59 more people lost their lives from traffic crashes in Minnesota.

Pairs of shoes set out on the Capitol steps on Saturday each represented a life likely to be lost to traffic fatalities in the remaining weeks of 2024.

“Driving is a full-time job,” Dudley stressed.

He’s a retired commercial driver of decades and said he’s seen just about everything on the road.

“You have to keep alert. Even if you change the station in your radio or change the temperature in your car, you’re distracted. If your attention is anywhere inside the vehicle, you are distracted,” he continued.

Pam Mason’s life also changed forever on Sept. 5, 2021, when her son Austin went on a bike ride.

“I kissed him on the cheek, and I said, ‘Honey, please be careful.’ He said, ‘I will, mama.'”

Shortly after, Austin was hit by a car. He survived, but life as he knew it was gone. The hit-and-run crash left him blind, non-verbal, quadriplegic and with a traumatic brain injury, Mason said.

“According to an eyewitness in the police report, my boy was catapulted in the air and flung around like a rag doll before landing on the pavement in the middle of the intersection,” she said.

The crash that changed Austin’s life was one of 7,532 crashes classified as hit-and-runs in Minnesota that year, according to a yearly report from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

That statistic rose to 8,025 in 2022.

Data for 2023 and 2024 were not readily available, but Mason noted that preliminary data showed an estimated 5,800 crashes have been classified as hit-and-runs so far in 2024.

Plymouth bar owner Kym Joles also spoke during the event. The Fox and Pantry owner said as a bar owner, she also has a responsibility to do everything she can to ensure people leaving her bar are not driving intoxicated.

She called on friends to hold each other accountable to not drink and drive. She also shared a story about her child getting a traffic ticket for using their phone while driving.

“And I said, ‘Well, did you?’ and she said, ‘No, Mom, I know not to do that.’ So I said, ‘Well, then why did you get a ticket?’ She said, ‘Well, I was just changing the music with my phone,'” Joles narrated.

“I need to say no more about how we need to educate not only our kids but our friends. We need to be role models to them. We need to show them that we are not destructive so we can change the way the world works.”

Lt. Col. Jeremy Geiger with the Minnesota State Patrol stressed his belief that reaching zero traffic fatalities is possible with more education, safe driving laws, improved engineering and a commitment from everyone to drive alert at all times.

“Some may say this vision statement is only a dream and realistically not achievable. They may say, ‘We can prevent or stop some crashes or most crashes, but not all crashes.’ My response to that is, which crashes are we willing to leave on the table? Which ones are, are we okay with?” he said.

“The answer for us at the Minnesota State Patrol is none. We’re not willing to accept any loss of life due to preventable crashes, period.”