Tulsa mother fights for change at intersection after son’s death: ‘I feel like I'm taking care of him’

A Tulsa woman has spent the past year working to make an intersection safer after her son was hit and killed there last summer.

He was walking near 81st and Mingo, and she decided to turn her heartbreak into something positive.

Iley Orgill says her 17-year-old son was autistic and non-verbal, and she wants to be his voice by trying to protect other young people from the same fate.

A reminder of Isaiah Orgill

Drivers fly past a sign near 81st and Mingo that says "Watch for pedestrians and cyclists."

Iley Orgill put that sign there as well as lights and pinwheels under it, in honor of her 17-year-old son, Isaiah.

"It just makes me almost feel like it's I'm at his grave site or something, just where he's at, visiting him," said Iley.

A tragic accident

Tulsa Police say Isaiah was walking in this area after dark last June when a driver hit him.

Iley says it wasn't unusual for him to go for a walk in the evenings, and that night she tried to pick him up, but he refused.

"When he really didn't want to do something, it was like, nope, nope, nope, nope. This is what I'm doing," said Orgill.

She went home for a bit, and that's when she got the call that Isaiah had been hit.

"After he passed, my heart just hurt really bad, like, a heart attack, and like a third of my heart was stopping or something," said Orgill.

Making a change in honor of Isaiah

There are no sidewalks or lights where Isaiah was hit, and Iley has been working with the Tulsa City Council to get that changed by adding safety improvements, because she wants to save someone else's life.

"It really has helped, I think, my grieving, and when I--when my insides hurt, because I'm missing him, and if I do something that's for him, I feel like I'm taking care of him, and it makes me feel proud to be a Tulsan. My concerns are being heard," said Orgill.

City of Tulsa's update

The City of Tulsa says it's in the process of designing a plan that would connect the sidewalks along South Mingo between 81st and 91st Streets. The city says that when the design is complete, they'll have a better idea of the cost and then can decide what they can do for that area.