A grieving East Bay mother is on a mission: Nearly three weeks after her son was hit and killed by a pickup truck "doing doughnuts" in the street, she is taking action to make sure no one else suffers because of reckless drivers.
Linda Hudson is heartbroken and angry. The Antioch woman says she is not willing to wait on the city to make her street safer.
“I can't sleep. I'm not eating. I am torn up,” Hudson said.
Her 47-year-old son, Tim Hudson, was struck and killed in front of the family's home on May 11 as he tried to stop a teenage driver witnesses said was doing doughnuts on West 11th Street. The grieving mother says the vehicle dragged her son 45 feet and “never even slowed down.”
A 19-year-old Antioch man was eventually arrested.
Neighbors say it's what they have feared for years: They say their stretch of West 11th Street has turned into a speedway.
The Hudsons took their concerns to the city council, asking for speed bumps, but Hudson said the mayor cut her off. He directed her to the city's public works department to investigate the matter.
But that didn't cut it for Linda Hudson. She pledged to install speed bumps on her own.
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Friday afternoon, the speed bumps "magically" appeared. Hudson said some concerned citizens installed them and she had indeed pitched in.
"I went out and drilled a hole," Hudson said. "I told them I wanted to drill one."
Hudson said she is certain her son is in heaven saying “Way to go, mom.”
“I love him and I'm doing it for him,” she said. “I can't bring him back, but I can do this for him and maybe save somebody else's child's life.”
Altering a street is illegal. It is unclear how the city of Antioch will respond.
