PROVIDENCE — For the second time in three years, a family had to reconcile the death of a loved one at the same busy intersection on Union Avenue. And both families are asking: Why did it have to happen twice?

A school bus driver hit Lucas García, 38, in the crosswalk on the street earlier this month. Violet Barracks, 76, was killed in a hit-and-run in the same place in 2022.

Relatives of both victims, including their children, attended a vigil Oct. 7 to remember García and Barracks, ask for justice, and demand safety improvements in the area.

While people made speeches in both English and Spanish on a little patch of grass next to the intersection, cars whizzed by through a slip lane and passed the lighted intersection where García and Barracks died.

“Today, my son’s father, but tomorrow, who?” Garcia’s wife, Jessica, asked, holding a bouquet of flowers in her hands.

Their son Alexis, a sixth-grader, spoke about how grateful he was that the bus that hit his father was empty that morning, so that no children on board had to witness the tragedy.

“All I want is justice, that’s all I want, then, for no one else to die here, and no one has to suffer through what I have,” he said.

García leaves behind two sons and a stepdaughter. Friends at the vigil said he loved music, every kind, even acting as a DJ occasionally. His stepdaughter, Carla, said he was an incredible father to her, tearing up when she described how he was always willing to take her to the mall, no matter how many times she asked.

Denise Whitley, Barrack’s daughter, also spoke at the vigil, to share her grief with García’s family and her own desire to make the area safer.

“I had my mother for 56 years,” she said, “and I look at your son, that’s what breaks me.”

Whitley described her mother as the life of the party, always on the dance floor, always hosting people and asking what they wanted to eat or drink as soon as they walked through the door.

Barracks lived in a house on the corner where she was killed, a Jamaican immigrant who at that point was living her “American dream.” She hadn’t had an easy life, her daughter said, but she always made lemonade out of the lemons she was given and tried to help those in her life, especially family back home on the island.

Since her mother’s death, Whitley said she’s taken up crocheting, sporting a colorful hat she’d made that was reminiscent both of her mother’s spirit and style, she said.

Whitley told ecoRI News she’s had trouble finding closure since her mother’s death. The driver that killed Barrack self-deported before facing a trial. She said learning about a second death at the intersection reopened some wounds.

The bus driver who hit García was cited with a number of violations, with an optional court hearing scheduled for Nov. 18, according to the police report from the scene.

The City Council, along with Mayor Brett Smiley, have pledged to reduce traffic fatalities to zero by 2030.

“Crashes like these are a reminder that we are not going to meet that goal without substantive change to the way that we approach intersection design,” said Dylan Giles, operations manager for the Providence Streets Coalition, which helped organize the vigil with translation support from Progreso Latino. 

“It’s just devastating that we have to continue to have this bloodshed in the streets while nothing gets done. Viola was killed three years ago in this exact same intersection, and this intersection is in the exact same configuration as on that day in 2022,” Giles said. 

Coupling that with city and state efforts to get people to reduce their vehicle miles traveled — for environmental, air quality, and congestion goals — Giles asked, “Why would anyone voluntarily get rid of their car or start biking to work once a week or twice a week, when this continues to happen?”

PVD Streets Coalition board president Liza Burkin noted there are some plans and funding already underway to improve the street design at the Union Avenue intersection.

“Luckily, the city does have money to change this intersection, but they are not moving fast enough,” she said. “We are here to demand that they move this project to the top of the list so that nobody else has to suffer like these families are suffering today.”

City spokesperson Josh Estrella said Providence was working with the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to review the improvement plans for the area.

The improvements are set to be made through the Safe Streets For All Initiative, and include new signals — the crosswalk where García was killed doesn’t have a walk signal — and improvements to the sidewalks, crosswalks, and lighting.

“The Smiley Administration is heartbroken by this tragic loss of life and extends its deepest condolences to the victim’s family and loved ones. Every person has the right to travel safely on our streets, and we are alarmed that this occurred while the individual was in a crosswalk,” Estrella wrote in a statement to ecoRI News, “We are working in collaboration with the Police Department to understand how this could have happened and if site changes to this area could have prevented this tragedy.”

It’s unclear when those improvements are slated to start. But Estrella wrote, “At Mayor Smiley’s instruction, the City of Providence is currently looking at options for expediting site improvements.”

When the sun started to set at the vigil, García’s son Alexis and others began lighting candles at the spot next to the intersection, which also was crowded with flowers and balloons. The day before the vigil would have been García’s 39th birthday.

Without his father to celebrate for the first time, García’s wife Jessica said she thinks it will be a hard time for Alexis, whose birthday is also coming up this fall.

Before heading out, Barracks’ daughter said goodbye to García’s family, telling them how sorry she was, grabbing Jessica’s hand for a moment in silence.