LANSING, Mich. — Two families from Holt and Lansing have come together to demand change after their sons were hit and killed while working on a highway construction site.
It was 3 a.m. on Nov. 7 when Davyon Rose and Nicholas Sada's parents heard the news no parent wants to hear.
"The state police come in to let us know that our son had been in an accident at work was struck by a vehicle and killed," said Nicholas Male, Sada's father.
Sada's family said he was a loving man who was adored by everyone he worked with.
"Nicholas was really happy. He was fun to be around, he was the type of individual that could walk into a room and kind of make the room light up with a joke," his father said.
Rose, who was one of Sada's best friends, served in the army with honors. His mother, Dianna Rose-Stitt, says he wasn't even home a year before losing his life.
"I just felt like somebody just just ripped my heart out. Davyon, is my only son. So you know, he was he was my best friend he was my baby boy," Rose-Stitt said.
The accident happened in Washtenaw County on the Interstate 94 near Ypsilanti. Ryan Musselman has been charged with driving drunk when she crashed into the 23-year-olds.
"The first time I held Nicholas, I promised him that I would always protect him. And I realized at that moment that, at 23 years old, he was growing, but I couldn't protect him from that," Male said.
Musselman was arrested that night and posted bond three days later. She had to pay a cash bond of $10,000.
"$5,000 per account. So, so my son, life was basically worth $5,000," Rose-Stitt said.
Male said he went to the crash site after hearing the news.
"There wasn't a whole lot there as far as safety went to protect the guys while they were working overnight," he said. "All they had were barrels."
MDOT said fatal accidents involving construction workers happened three times in 2019, five times in 2020, and once this year.
The families are asking for stiffer punishments for drunk drivers and to protect construction workers. They plan on having a protest at the Capitol on July 17th.
"We'd like to see the concrete barriers," Male said. "That's the one of the biggest things to protect them, it really is. The proper lighting, we'd like to see a state police presence around the construction zones, if possible."
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