Shortly after the woman who killed their 17-year-old son received a prison sentence, Jill and Michael White are continuing their advocacy for road safety and accountability.

Jill and Michael White and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse are pushing for the passage of the Magnus White Cyclist Safety Act of 2025. The three advocated for the legislation in a video released by Neguse’s office earlier this month. Neguse pushed for the bill in 2024.

Under the 2025 language, the bill would require automotive manufacturers to install automatic emergency braking systems, or AEBS, for certain vehicles no later than three years after the bill’s passage.

The potential law would apply to passenger vehicles small and large, from sedans to minivans.

“There is technology today, automatic braking technology, that we know can and will save lives,” Neguse says in the video. “We only need the political will to make it a reality.”

The bill would require AEBS to detect cyclists or other vulnerable road users, essentially anyone not traveling in a car, that the vehicle may be getting too close to and automatically stop. It also would require AEBS to be functionable in daylight and low light conditions.

“It requires not just to detect pedestrians and cyclists. It’s motorcyclists, it’s people on farm equipment, it’s people with disabilities, people on e-bikes and e-scooters,” Michael White told the Daily Camera in a May interview while he and Jill sat on a couch in their north Boulder home.

The Magnus White Safety Act also calls for AEBS to detect a wider range of colors for skin complexion, clothing and safety gear.

A 2019 study from the Georgia Institute of Technology found that the darker the skin of a vulnerable road user, the more likely an AEBS may be to not detect them.

“Cars got us into it — tech and cars will get us out of it,” Jill White said in May.The push comes after cyclist and pedestrian deaths in the state hit a recent peak in 2023 with 156 fatalities, up from 78 deaths in 2015, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

For the Whites, figures like those aren’t simply statistics. They can be a constant and sobering reminder of who was taken from them and so many other families in the state. Jill and Michael founded The White Line, a nonprofit advocating for road safety.

Magnus White, a 17-year-old who was with USA Cycling, was struck and killed on the Diagonal Highway in 2023 by Yeva Smilianska, who was recently found guilty of reckless vehicular homicide and sentenced to four years in prison.

“Sharing the stories, sharing some of Magnus’ items he was wearing publicly (is important) because people need to see the devastation to change. ‘Cause if they don’t see it, they’re not gonna change,” Michael White said.

“People think you’re hit by a car, you fall down and hit your head, you’re dead. No, it’s a violent way. Violent, brutal death.”