PORTLAND, Ore. — For Kelly Kelvin, time has not dulled the pain of losing her husband Josh Kelvin.
"August 4 will be two months," she said. "There are some mornings that I’m like, I don’t know how I’m going to keep going."
A father of three and husband of 18 years, Josh Kelvin was shot and killed on June 4 while driving for Uber in Southeast Portland. His 17-year old passenger was also shot, but survived.
"These people need to know in a split second how they devastated a family," Kelly Kelvin said Wednesday at a press conference in Downtown Portland.
She held a tissue handy as she stepped up to the microphone, talking about her newfound passion of advocating for rideshare driver safety.
She's asking for camera systems inside vehicles, and end to third-party rides and the creation of a more thorough vetting process for passengers. Her list also includes asking rideshare companies to no longer allow unaccompanied minors on rides, and to give drivers more time to accept rides without penalty.
"Even though this happened from outside of the vehicle, (cameras) could have maybe picked up who did it," she said. "It might not have prevented it but at least it can help be a deterrent if a passenger wants to get unruly in the car."
Kelvin is bringing her concerns to the city of Portland, and to rideshare platforms like Uber, through the TNC Drivers Advisory Committee, a group created created in 2019 by the Portland Bureau of Transportation to "serve as a forum where drivers can express issues, concerns, and suggestions," according to its bylaws. The committee has a liaison that can then communicate on behalf of the group to rideshare companies and the city.
It's a way for Kelvin to honor her husband and try to make changes for other families in the industry. She said she's serving as a member of the group for the next few years, and there will be an open meeting about her safety concerns on Aug. 12.
While Uber's own rules do allow drivers to put cameras in their cars, the rideshare company also says the use of cameras can depend on local laws and regulations.
"Uber is deeply committed to the safety of drivers, and over the years we have taken serious steps to improve safety on the platform including building features like GPS tracking, the ability to chat with a live safety agent, and an in-app emergency button," a spokesperson told KGW in an email. "Our efforts will never stop, and we are committed to continually raising the bar on safety to help protect our communities."
The spokesperson added that last year Uber partnered with Nexar, a company that makes dashboard cameras, to make that technology more affordable for Portland rideshare drivers to make them more "accessible."
Uber's community guidelines also say that anyone who is under 18 must be accompanied by an adult, unless they have a specified teen account, which is available in Portland.
As Kelvin has turned to activism, she's found support in Radio Cab, and specifically Darin Campbell. He's a Radio Cab manager and serves on the Private for Hire Transportation Advisory Committee for the city of Portland.
"When one of us loses somebody in this tragic of a manner then we all hurt, and we all know that it could happen to us, and it has happened to us," Campbell said.
Last spring, Radio Cab driver Reese Lawhon was stabbed and killed by a passenger. A camera inside the cab captured exactly what happened and Lawhon's killer was sentenced to over 20 years in prison.
Campbell said cameras were installed in Radio Cabs in the early 2000s.
Unlike in Lawhon's case, there was not a camera inside Josh Kelvin's car, and his killer has not been caught.
"Everybody has a conscience," Kelly Kelvin said. "I hope this is weighing heavy on theirs, and they just want to get it off their conscience and make things right."
Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,500 dollar reward to anyone who provides information that helps solve Josh Kelvin's case.