LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On the last day of 2019, drivers near I-64 and Cannons Lane found themselves stuck in detours. Most never saw why the interstate was closed for hours, with traffic clearing in time for people headed to their New Year’s Eve parties.
Now, a year later, the pain is still fresh for a family trying to cope with that day’s tragedy.
"It's a day I'll never forget," Amy Kizer said. "You know you never forget that phone call."
Kizer's father, Larry, died just after 9 a.m. on New Year's Eve. The 62-year-old LMPD tow truck driver was just months from retirement.
The man known for rescuing stray cats at the impound lot tried to remove an abandoned truck from the side of the interstate so people could safely travel to their New Year's Eve parties.
Kizer said her father's backup alarm did not work, and somehow the emergency brake disengaged while he was underneath connected the abandoned truck. It crushed him.
While 2020 has been difficult for everyone, Kizer has had extraordinarily hard year. She's been forced to deal with the paperwork of handling a loss while working full time and helping care for a disabled sister and five children.
She said she has tried to do her best for her dad, looking back on happier times to remain focused.
"He would help anybody, he was the funniest person," Kizer said. "He was a family person, he loved everybody in his family and he loved his grandbabies."
His family, friends and colleagues who took part in the funeral procession all remembered Larry Kizer as someone who would do anything for the community — and his daughter is making sure everyone knows that.
"I want him to be remembered as the best father, the best brother the best son," Kizer said. "I want him to be remembered as an honorable man, as a respected man...to know that to some people he may have just been a tow lot person, but that he was more than that."
But there is something she figures she'll never know.
"I don't know how I'm supposed to start every new year without him," said Kizer.
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