A deadly warning for drivers after a father of two, James Allen Mainieri, was killed in Ellisville last week on his motorcycle.
5 On Your Side's Annie Krall sat down with Mainieri's fiancée, Paige Schmitt who spoke for the first time on-camera about the tragedy in St. Louis County.
Mainieri was hit on his bike on September 12 while leaving work. Schmitt told Krall she doesn't get to marry the love of her life now because of what she said was an impatient driver.
"Just a split second and your whole life has changed," Schmitt said.
Schmitt and Mainieri, who went by his middle name Allen, got engaged last January after dating for five years.
Growing up in O'Fallon, MO they met through motorcycle riding.
"He was a hard working man," Schmitt said. "It was perfect."
Yet, the dream became a nightmare when she tried to track her fiancée's location on her phone around 5:15 pm last Thursday.
Mainieri was leaving work as a mechanic at the Ellisville Ford Dealership when Schmitt noticed his location had stopped.
"Then I started to think, maybe he got pulled over," Schmitt said. "Hoping he'd gotten pulled over. I called him two more times and I texted him again, 'are you good?' He didn't answer of course."
Mainieri was hit by a woman making a left turn out of a shopping plaza near Clayton Road and Clarkson Road.
Schmitt said he was killed on impact.
"I remember looking back and seeing my mom running across the street to me, and she just holds me and says she's sorry. She's so sorry," Schmitt said.
Mainieri leaves behind an almost four-year-old son and 10-year-old basically step-daughter since Schmitt and he were still engaged at the time.
Last year in Missouri, there were 171 motorcycle deaths according to the state's Coalition for Roadway Safety. It's a 40% jump from 2019 that had 121 fatalities.
"People just need to pay attention and look," Schmitt said. "The signs that say look twice save a life, they're real."
Mainieri's father, who was also named James Mainieri was killed in July 2017.
Unfortunately, also while riding a motorcycle.
"Nobody would have guessed that it would have resulted in the same thing happening to him," Schmitt said.
Schmitt said since two James Mainieris have died while riding motorcycles, she won't let it happen again to her son.
"How drastically has this changed how you handle motorcycles?" Krall asked Schmittt. "How will you handle motorcycles with your children?"
"My first reaction was we're selling all the bikes," Schmitt said. "All the bikes are gone. My mom, you got to sell the bike. Every bike that you own, you have to sell the bikes."
Though Schmitt recognizes that when people get into car crashes their families don't stop driving.
Schmitt said she's still waiting to see the full police report but wants to pursue charges against driver who hit her fiancée.
If you'd like to help the family, this is the link to the GoFundMe page. A life-saver Schmitt says to give her time to grieve while keeping the lights on for her children as she figures out what comes next.