By Michael Abeyta, CBS Colorado
Cindy Stepp says her daughter Ainslie O’Neil was outdoorsy like the rest of their family.
“She was an amazing, fun human being,” Stepp said. “We were active. We were outside all the time.”
As an adult, she cycled nearly everywhere she went. Cindy remembers that in December 2022, she gave her daughter a gentle reminder.
“I remember saying to her, ‘Just be careful out there. Pay attention,’ and she said, ‘I can be careful. I do pay attention,'” said Stepp.
Just a week later Ainslie was hit and killed by a car at West 35th and Federal Boulevard.
Her death happened five years after Denver launched Vision Zero; vowing to decrease fatalities on their streets by 2030.
“Since then, traffic fatalities have only increased across our city each year, with 2021 and 2022, each seeing 84 people killed on our streets. And we’re already on track to have. Another record-breaking year,” said Molly McKinley the Policy Director for The Denver Streets Partnership.