Widow speaks out after young dad was killed while jogging straight after moving for a job

Days after Hannah Ege, husband Sheria Musyoka and their 3-year-old son, Theo, moved to San Francisco from the East Coast to start a new life in 2021, Musyoka went jogging and was fatally injured by a truck traveling nearly 75 mph.

A month later, still numb with pain over Musyoka — a corporate recruiter who immigrated to the U.S. from his native Kenya and went through Dartmouth College — Ege (who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns) remembers thinking, “I have to do something.”

Ege didn’t know it at the time, but the tragedy that befell Musyoka has played out across the country as pedestrian deaths near a four-decade high.

According to the latest statistics from Governors Highway Safety Associationthe number of pedestrian deaths is up 48% from just 10 years ago, even as the number of deaths has decreased in dozens of other developed countries in Asia, Europe and elsewhere. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was found.

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The cause of the increase in these deaths goes beyond driver distraction — such as phones and dashboard touchscreens — and, according to the CDC, appears to be linked to the growing number of large, heavy vehicles such as SUVs and to America’s penchant for complicated, high-speed roads.

Most traffic victims in the United States are killed in vehicles, but the number of pedestrian deaths is increasing faster: in 2024, 7,148 pedestrians were killed by cars and tens of thousands of victims required hospital treatment.

“We prioritize driving and driving fast much more than pedestrians,” says Wes Marshallprofessor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Denver. “The problem is solved,” he says. “But it won’t be easy.”

Ege, a 31-year-old special education teacher, ended up reaching out to the group Families for Safe Streetswhose members showed up at their apartment shortly after Musyoka’s death to help them through the first days and weeks of grief.

“They were so hands on,” Ege says of the organization that was launched by Brooklyn mom Amy Cohenwho lost his 12-year-old son Sammy to a driver who sped to hit a traffic light while walking to football practice in 2013.

“I didn’t know advocacy groups did that,” says Ege.

The group — which has thousands of members and has won an impressive number of legislative victories at the local and state levels — seeks to harness the grief and anger of survivors of the crash victims to ensure that other families are not forced to endure their heartache.

Ege soon began meeting with officials in San Francisco and Philadelphia, where they now live, while grappling with the messy but transformative work of rallying others to the cause.

– It’s a lot of one-on-one meetings, calling into city halls and writing articles, says Ege, who is particularly focused on how technology – such as speed cameras and devices installed in vehicles to limit how fast convicted serial speeders can drive – can be used to make streets safer.

Their work recently helped get 15 speed cameras installed on a major artery in Philadelphia where 64 people have died in vehicle crashes in the past five years

“Sheria would want me to tell his story,” Ege says of their late husband. “And it’s the least I can do to make sure no other family has to endure what we have.”