Bike Safety Memorial Fund Set Up In Honor Of Bethesda Woman Killed While Cycling Home

BETHESDA, MD — The husband of a Bethesda woman who was killed while riding her bicycle last Thursday has launched an online campaign to raise funds for local and national cycling safety organizations that advocate for safer bike routes.

Sarah Langenkamp, 42, was struck and killed by a truck that crashed into her while she was riding in a bicycle lane on River Road in Bethesda. Langenkamp was a U.S. State Department employee, who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. She leaves behind her husband, Daniel Langenkamp, and their two young sons.

Langenkamp, who served as a U.S. diplomat with the State Department for 17 years, was killed while riding home from her sons' new elementary school in Bethesda

“We had just moved to Bethesda after our evacuation from Ukraine,” Daniel Langenkamp wrote on the GoFundMe page. “There, she had been in charge of programs to help the country's anti-corruption institutions and shepherd millions of dollars in U.S. assistance to police, border guards, and other non-military security institutions.”

On the day she was killed, Langenkamp rode on designated bike routes through residential neighborhoods and the Washington-Bethesda Capitol Crescent trail. For a few hundred yards, it took her along River Road, a busy commercial route “where a bike lane competes with cars and industrial traffic for space as the road becomes State Highway 190,” her husband wrote.

“Friends know that our commitment to biking is linked to our deep belief in living a life that is healthy, humble, and green,” he said. “To carry out this important mission, Sarah rode a bike — almost every day.”

Montgomery County Police said Langenkamp was riding in the bicycle lane on River Road around 4 p.m. last Thursday when the driver of a red 2014 Volvo D13 flatbed truck turned right into the parking lot of 5244 River Rd. and struck Langenkamp.

Police said they are continuing to investigate the fatal crash. Anyone with information regarding this collision is asked to contact CRU detectives at 240-773-6620.

Daniel Langenkamp said he and Sarah had been committed cyclists and regularly commuted to work all over the world, including in Ukraine, Côte d'Ivoire and Washington, D.C.

Through the fundraising effort, called the Sarah Langenkamp's Bike Safety Memorial Fund, Daniel Langenkamp said he is aiming to work with local and national cycling safety organizations to advocate for safer bike routes, including the stretch of River Road where Sarah was hit by the truck.

“If cities truly wish to make themselves walkable and bikeable to attract workers and talent, they need to do more than paint lines and bike symbols on roads,” he wrote. “Such bike lanes — lacking proper barriers, truck/auto driver education, laws, and law enforcement — are only death traps, luring innocent victims like Sarah toward them. They result in tragic deaths that leave children without parents and the world without its most talented and committed individuals.”

Daniel Langenkamp said he created the GoFundMe account with “an ambitious goal of $50,000 to help organizations already working on bike safety.”

“I am doing this because I am furious about Sarah's death, and I am personally committed to ensuring our mission to increase bike safety is realized,” he wrote.

As of Tuesday morning, the GoFundMe campaign had raised nearly $95,000.

To learn about the memorial fund or to donate money, visit the GoFundMe campaign set up by Daniel Langenkamp.

RELATED: Police Identify Bethesda Woman Struck, Killed While Riding Bicycle