"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." —James Baldwin

Dear All. Thank you for signing our petition. Thank you for supporting me and my family through the most devastating time of our lives. Many of you held space for us over the last 2 ½ years. We are very grateful to everyone who has shown us compassion and care.

• On September 4, 2021, Kevin Chris Dahl killed our 16-year old son, Aiden, while he was legally crossing in a marked crosswalk (Los Coyotes Diagonal & Deborah Street). Dahl was charged with the crime of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, California Penal Code §192(c)(1).
  
  
• On February 16, 2024, the criminal case concluded with a plea deal that favors the driver—that does nothing to restore the victim—that sends a horrible message to our community about public safety.

We tried. We left the Courthouse feeling disappointed and frustrated that our criminal justice system is wholly inadequate to treat gross vehicular manslaughter (a type of homicide) as the serious crime that it is. We thank Judge Sean Coen for adding a required driver training course to the sentence. However, we feel that the sentence is appallingly lenient. We have found that the law does not provide substantial remedies for the negligent killing of a human being through one's own driving.

In 2023, LAPD reported that the number of vehicular fatalities exceeded the number of murders. But sadly, California does not care about crimes of negligence as it does crimes of intent. How many more deaths are we willing to tolerate? 

Please, drive like your child is crossing the street in a crosswalk. Please, do your part in promoting safe responsible driving . . . and maybe we can save more lives.

Man sentenced to 6 months in jail for crash that killed 16-year-old boy in Long Beach