On Wednesday, June 8th at approximately 1:34 pm, a 25 year old male riding a bicycle was struck and killed by a person driving a Honda Odyssey. According to initial reports, the person riding a bicycle was traveling southbound on North Gilmore Street, and the person driving the Honda was traveling Westbound on Edmondson.
Anytime a motor vehicle collision causes a fatality, the CRASH team begins an investigation. They then turn their findings over to the State's Attorney's office at which time it is determined whether or not charges will be filed.
No further information regarding this tragic incident has been made available.
While we won't know the exact cause of the crash until further details are released, we do know that reducing vehicle speeds greatly improves the chance of survival for vulnerable road users like people walking and people biking. While many factors may have contributed to the crash, one thing--vehicle speed at impact--caused a tragic loss of life.
At Bikemore we are working toward policy changes that will fundamentally change how we move in this city. But most importantly we are demanding our streets be made safer for all road users--in all neighborhoods, now. Traffic calming like speed humps or roundabouts, signal timing, narrowing travel lanes by adding additional facilities like protected bike lanes are all methods for reducing vehicle speed. We can build safer streets, we just need the political will to do it.
Many have asked if we will be leading on memorializing the person who was killed. If Bikemore were to take the lead we would be most comfortable doing so only after we know the identity of the victim and have had a chance to reach out to the family and neighboring community to receive their blessing. We understand and respect the symbolism that ghosts bikes have for the cycling community and obviously wouldn't stand in anyone's way that wanted to act independently to place something in memorial. But as Bikemore, we have a larger objective of building up healthy neighborhoods and peoples positive feelings towards bicycling. Our outreach in this neighborhood has been weak, a product of limited resources and being a relatively new organization--and we don't want our first act to be one that doesn't include the neighborhood in the process. So we are waiting until more information is available to decide what is the best course of action to both honor the victim and continue raise awareness of this very sad event.
Be vigilant, be safe.