The final months of senior year can be a very exciting time for any high school student. For many, it consists of college acceptance letters, senior prom dances and dreaming about the unlimited potential the future could hold. This is what could’ve happened for Madison West High School senior Alexander “Sasha” Rosen.
Instead, Sasha was hit and killed by an SUV while crossing South Park St. on his way to school on Feb. 6, 2026. The criminal complaint alleges the driver was going 62 mph in a 25 mph zone.
“If she'd stopped, obviously, he would have just gotten on the bus and gone to school and he would be in college right now,” Nadya Rosen, Sasha’s mother, told the Daily Cardinal. “He didn’t get that.”
Nadya Rosen said Sasha was a goofy, fun loving kid with an eccentric music taste. He spent summers as a counselor at Camp Shalom.
“It’s weird to think of him not being alive, because he was so alive,” Nadya Rosen said. “He was really funny and ridiculously silly, even as a really young kid.”
“The other day, there was a bat in the house, and it ended up in his [Sasha’s] room. I was with my neighbor, we were circling around the room trying to get the bat out, and all I could think was how much Sasha would just have found that entire experience hysterical and totally ridiculous that two grown women were running around after this tiny 4-inch creature,” Nadya Rosen said.
A week after Sasha’s death, Nadya Rosen published an open letter to motorists on South Park St. In the letter, she urged drivers to pay attention, go the speed limit and stop for crosswalks.
“If all drivers on South Park St. followed those rules, my son would still be here with me, making fun of me being old, and then giving me a massive hug,” the letter states.
Now, Nadya Rosen is continuing her advocacy. The Rosen family is partnering with Ride for your Life, a nonprofit organization that organizes bike rides across the country to advocate for pedestrian and bicycle safety. The organization held their first event in Madison in 2023, and this year, their second Madison ride will honor Sasha’s life.
“Sasha’s death was a real wake-up call to many people in Madison,” Dan Langenkamp, Ride for your Life founder, told the Cardinal.
Ride for your Life started in 2022 in Washington D.C. Since then, the organization has held an annual ride in D.C, as well as events in Boston, Boulder and Saskatchewan. For Langenkamp, there is a personal connection to each ride.
“I started it after my wife was killed,” Langenkamp said. “Her name was Sarah Debbink Langenkamp.”
Sarah Debbink Langenkamp’s family is from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. A U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, Debbink Langenkamp was hit and killed by a truck while riding her bicycle in Bethesda, Maryland. She was 42 years old.
“The truth is behind all 40,000 people that are being killed on our roads every year, behind all of them are devastated families, devastated communities,” Dan Langenkamp said.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported 36,640 traffic deaths in the U.S. — including both pedestrian and motorist deaths. The figure is the lowest raw total since 2019. In Madison, there were 18 fatal crashes reported in 2024, 13 within city limits and 5 on city-controlled roadways.
“The fact that there is a big bicycling community in Madison, and Madison is a relatively friendly place, doesn't mean that there aren't real challenges,” Langenkamp said.
The six-mile bike ride, one-mile walk will take place on Oct. 4. The ride will conclude with a rally on the steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol— calling for the passage of AB 655/SB 659, nicknamed “Sasha’s bill.” The bill would allow judges to put GPS-enabled speed limiters on repeat reckless driver’s vehicles.
Wisconsin State Rep. Russell Goodwin, a sponsor of the bill, will speak at the Ride for your Life rally in front of the Capitol.
“I've been trying to champion this for a while,” Goodwin told the Cardinal, “I've met so many wonderful people and listened to their stories.”
The bill specifies that speed limiter can be used as a part of a driver’s sentence if the driver is convicted of a second, or subsequent, reckless driving offense over 20 miles per hour above the speed limit.
Goodwin, like Langenkamp, has a personal connection to the dangers of reckless driving.
“My godmother was killed by a reckless driver,” Goodwin said. “I’ve been working on it ever since.”
Goodwin’s grandmother, Dr. Sylvia Tiwari, died in 2018 when a reckless driver went through a stop sign at high speeds in a residential area of Milwaukee.
“I think sometimes we become numb to the statistics,” Goodwin said. “Those aren't just statistics. Those are actual people, actual names with family members who are still devastated from things that have happened years ago.”
The speed limiters in the bill came from Goodwin. He told the Cardinal he first encountered the technology at the National Conference for State Legislatures in Boston. Goodwin and State Sen. Chris Larson tested the technology for themselves in 2025.
“People have breathalyzers in their car. They can’t start their car without it. It’s the same exact idea,” Goodwin said.
For Langenkamp and Ride for your Life, motivating policy change has always been central to the organization’s mission. The “Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Safety Act” opens up federal funding for pedestrian and bicycle safety infrastructure and is named after Langenkamp’s late wife.
“We want people to understand that this is not just a bike ride,” Langenkamp said. “It is really about trying to make change.”
As someone who had experienced a similar tragedy, Langenkamp was empathetic to the Rosen family.
“Their world has been destroyed by Sasha's death,” Langenkamp said. “They opened their hearts and minds to this initiative. I explained to them my own situation, my own story, and I explained what we've done in the past.”
For Nadya Rosen, revisiting that pain less than a year after Sasha’s death has not been easy.
“Talking about him is wonderful and I love him. I love to remind myself and to teach other people about who he was and to have the opportunity to really give life to who he was and that he's not just a one-dimensional photograph,” Nadya Rosen said. “but that can be really exhausting.”
Beyond getting the super speeders bill passed, Nadya Rosen hopes that Sasha’s story can begin to change the culture around reckless driving — believing many people don’t understand how dangerous their actions are.
“I don't want people to go through what I'm going through,” Nadya Rosen said. “I don’t wish this on anyone.”
