Hit-and-Run Driver Killed Jesse Rodriguez, 67, Near North Shore Channel Trail
Update 9/25/18: CBS Chicago reports that a 15-year-old boy turned himself in Monday, admitting to being the driver from the crash. The teen has been charged with felony counts of reckless homicide, failure to report a crash, and leaving the scene of a crash.
A hit-and-run-driver struck and killed a 67-year-old Jesse Rodriguez on a bike Sunday afternoon near the North Shore Channel Trail’s crossing of Devon Avenue, in the Pulaski Park neighborhood. It was the 6th deadly bike collision in Chicago this year.
At about 5:20 p.m. Rodriguez was standing at the southeast corner of Devon and McCormick when the eastbound driver of a silver-colored Dodge Charger struck him, according to Police News Affairs. After impact the motorist fled east on on Devon.
Rodriguez, who lived in Rogers Park, was taken to Saint Francis Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to a Sun-Times report.
Police have released a photo of the vehicle showing extensive front-end damage. Its Illinois license plate number is AL53664. As of this morning, no one was in custody.
ABC News footage of police at the crash site indicates that after the impact the victim lay near the west side of the Devon bridge over the North Shore Channel, which is near the North Shore Channel Trail. The trail intersects Devon about 50 feet east of McCormick Boulevard. Cyclists are supposed to use a crosswalk at McCormick to cross Devon. West of McCormick, the direction the driver was coming from, Devon has six lanes, which encourages speeding by drivers.
With six bike fatalities so far this year, Chicago has already seen more deaths that the full-year average for 2012-2016 of 5.8 fatalities, according to numbers released by the Chicago Department of Transportation at last week’s Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting. The average number of deaths between January 1 and August 30 of those years was only 3.4 deaths. There are still more than three months to go in 2018.
Fatality Tracker: 2018 Chicago pedestrian and bicyclist deaths
Pedestrian: 29
Bicyclist: 6
Note: Streetsblog Chicago’s traffic death numbers represent fatal crashes on Chicago streets. The pedestrian count above is based on Chicago Police Department data for January-August 2018 released by the Chicago Department of Transportation, plus media reports for September.
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