A Matthews man who lost his wife in a fatal car wreck is raising awareness about how speeding can kill. | Pixabay
A Matthews man who lost his wife in a fatal car wreck is raising awareness about how speeding can kill. | Pixabay
A seven-vehicle pileup that killed David Counter’s wife late last year has prompted the Matthews man to advocate for people to follow posted speed limits.
This Sunday, Counter will remember his late wife during a celebration of life event at Freedom Park in Charlotte.
“You need to memorialize someone by changing the situation, and action needs to be taken just to decrease the number of road deaths,” Counter said in a WBTV report.
The news of Dec. 23 is etched in Counter's mind after his wife, Lee Strode, died in the crash on Highway 74 in Matthews.
He recounted what happened when the police officer came to his home.
“He said, ‘Your wife’s been involved in an accident,’” Counter said in the report. “And the one thing I remember distinctly is I said, ‘Well, is she okay?’ He avoided saying she’s dead. He said, ‘She’s deceased.’”
Matthews police told the station Jonathan Keating, the man who caused the wreck, has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, misdemeanor death by vehicle and reckless driving. Police say he was driving 87 in a 55-mph zone.
Seven months later, Counter is still coping with the loss.
“There are hard days,” he said in the report. “They get fewer and kind of further in between, but yeah, it’s, you never want to get used to it. It was obviously harder at first because you end up doing all these everyday things you used to have you doing, you’re buying groceries for one, you’re doing your laundry for one.”
He is now on a mission to raise awareness of the dangers of speeding.
“If we can save one life then that’s one family that doesn’t have to go through what I’ve gone through,” he said on the report. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
Counter asks people to speak up when they see someone driving recklessly, because it could save a life.
“Because at the end of the day, that’s what we want to do,” he said. “I think too many people don’t realize that their actions have consequences. Not just in this case to myself, but it’s, I’ve come to realize the number of lives that my wife touched. So, it’s kind of a ripple effect. One person is killed, and yet that one person has touched so many lives.”
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