Imagine seeing your child’s face, that sweet smile as they leave for their evening out. Tonight, for one family, it was dinner at Arby’s. But instead of coming home safely in a school bus after the game ended early, they walked alone.

The teenager, an autistic young man we’ll call Alex, had just missed his ride and decided to walk the few miles back home from Arby's. His family never thought anything would happen on that dark stretch between here and there.

But it did. A car hit him, running off into the night without a second glance at the boy lying in the road. By the time help arrived, Alex was gone.

"This isn’t isolated," says Officer Smith from our local PD. “We’ve had other incidents of drivers fleeing after hitting pedestrians in recent months.”

The buried detail here? The lack of proper lighting and pedestrian paths along a stretch that sees teens walking home every night. Where are the protections for kids like Alex?

As a mother, I can’t help but think about what kind of world we’re leaving behind when something this senseless happens on our streets.

Please share this with every parent you know. We need to start talking about safety measures that actually protect our children.