Jenny was born on March 26, 1982
Date of crash: Wednesday, July 24, 2024
On July 24, 2024, Jenny and her husband Mark Vrba were just starting a bike ride for triathlon training when her bike suddenly got a flat tire, just a few miles from home.
They decided that Mark would bike home to get the car so that Jenny didn’t have to walk home in her special bike shoes that were uncomfortable to walk in. As Jenny walked along the roadside and waited for Mark, a 17-year-old driver — distracted by their phone — veered off the road and struck her from behind.
When Mark came back, in the span of around 10 minutes, he found Jenny lying on the road receiving CPR from paramedics. She succumbed to her injuries just a few hours later at MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center.
Despite the driver’s age, they were charged as an adult. Trial for the driver is set for Dec. 2, to which they pled not guilty in spite of proof of their distraction from investigation.
Zealous about triathlons, running, and all things sports, calling Jenny ‘fit’ was an understatement. As an undergraduate in Sport and Business Management at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC), Jenny was the starting point guard for the
women’s basketball team and there met Mark Vrba. From that point on, in their prolific adventures together, their lives were nothing short of active.
“I want her story to change the way people drive, that is her legacy,” said Mark Vrba,
Jenny’s husband. “Not the legacy we want but if something positive can come from her story, that is what her family and I want.”
In the wake of Jenny’s passing, her loved ones have honored her memory through
meaningful acts of advocacy and remembrance. A memorial bench now sits at a local nature center where she and Vrba often ran together, a quiet place of reflection.
Scholarships have been established in her name—one for women’s basketball players at NIACC, where she played point guard, and another at her high school—ensuring her passion for athletics lives on in future generations. Vrba has become a powerful advocate for safer roads, partnering with the Iowa Bicycle Coalition to support the Hands Free Bill in Iowa.
He also shared Jenny’s story at the state capitol in March, a moment he believes helped move the bill forward. When it was signed into law, he stood in the Governor’s office to witness it. Since January, he has delivered multiple distracted driving presentations in the North Iowa area and plans to continue sharing Jenny’s story indefinitely. Through grief, advocacy, and action, Jenny’s legacy now rides alongside every effort to make
Iowa’s roads safer for everyone who shares the road.
