The first step toward safer roads might be a conversation.

For Katie Sandell, it’s a conversation she wishes she hadn’t needed to learn from experience.

Sandell’s 4-year-old daughter was hit by a vehicle in 2022 while the family was looking at Christmas lights. Sandell said the driver was texting.

The experience led Sandell to create Addie’s Miracle and Survivors Against Distracted Driving, organizations that provide advocacy and support to families dealing with traumatic accidents.

Now she’s bringing that work to the community with Maricopa’s first Walk This Way pedestrian awareness event Oct. 10.

The family-friendly event will run from 1 to 4 p.m. and is expected to be held at the Maricopa Library and Cultural Center amphitheater, where Sandell said the event will feature hands-on educational stations, speakers and vendors. 

The injury prevention team from Phoenix Children’s will offer age-appropriate pedestrian courses, while city leaders, community officials and other speakers will discuss pedestrian safety and concerns around Maricopa schools.

Sandell also hopes to have local bus drivers and crossing guards talk about what they see around school zones. For young children, an early street education station will offer basic pedestrian safety activities, followed by face painting.

Attendees also can try traumatic brain injury simulation goggles designed to demonstrate some of the challenges TBI survivors experience.

A pedestrian and distracted-driving display will be set up at the end of the event, where attendees can sign a community pledge banner.

Sandell said the event grew out of concerns about pedestrian safety, particularly around schools and with the increasing use of e-bikes and e-scooters.

“I think the pedestrian issue is just so big right now, especially in school zones,” she said. “It’s something that had to be done just to bring awareness into the community.”

But Sandell said the goal isn’t simply to give families information for an afternoon. She wants parents to leave ready to have conversations with their children about safety.

“Parents, I think, don’t want to be the broken record,” she said. “[But] it’s okay to be the broken record if it means your child’s going come home in one piece.”

She said those conversations should continue into adulthood, too.

“We have to have boundaries. We have to have teachable moments with our children,” Sandell said. “Even as adults, we need to remind ourselves of important safety things.”

Sandell said she hopes the event can bring residents together around an issue that doesn’t need to be partisan.

“We don’t have to agree politically on everything 100%, but the one thing that we can agree on is we need safer roads for our families and for our children especially,” she said.

Ultimately, she hopes awareness and education can help reduce the number of pedestrian crashes and injuries.

“I think it’s important to have events like this because the discussion just isn’t being had,” Sandell said.