Driver fatally struck Jan Kopec, 83, on his bike in Archer Heights

On Friday, August 21, a driver struck and killed 83-year-old Jan Kopec as he rode his bike in the Archer Heights neighborhood on the Southwest Side. With his passing, our city has already seen six on-street bike fatalities this year, two more than in all of 2019.

According to police, on Friday at about 6 p.m. Kopec was cycling north on Kostner Avenue crossing Archer Avenue. Mario Aguilar, 56, was driving a 2006 Ford truck south on Kostner when he attempted to make a left turn onto Archer and failed to yield to Kopec, striking him. Kopec, who lived in the neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Aguilar, who lives in the nearby Sleepy Hollow community, was charged with a felony for driving with a revoked / suspended license, according to a police spokesperson, who added that Aguilar previously lost his license for driving while intoxicated.

"He was a great neighbor, his family and neighbors were his pride, his wife whom he called Mama was his love," one mourner posted on Kopec's obituary page. "St. Bruno and neighbors have missed his smile dearly He was an exceptional pillar in helping others."

"Pań Kopec was always smiling," wrote another. "Nothing bothered him. His smile was sweet, inviting, warm, genuine, and very contagious that one could not help themselves but to smile along with him. Sadly, it is not with a smile I write this but with tears of such a tragic, sudden, and unexpected loss."

Kopec was the sixth person biking killed on Chicago streets so far this year, when our city is seeing a cycling boom as more people have turned to cycling for socially-distanced transportation and recreation. (Last week a seventh person, Mark Goodman, 56, died after suffering brain injuries in a crash with another cyclist on the Lakefront Trail near Belmont Avenue earlier this month.)

In comparison, only four cyclists were killed on Chicago streets in 2019. Our city averaged about 5.8 on-street bike fatalities per year from 2012 to 2016.

Here are the other people who died in on-street bike crashes this year:

• On February 29 a hit-and-run driver fatally struck a 61-year-old male cyclist on the 3700 block of West Lake Street in East Garfield Park.
• On May 20 a motorist fatally struck Andrew Peterson, 37, at Taylor and Ruble streets on the Near West Side.
• On June 18 Louis Jacobson, 67, was biking on the 6400 block on North Western Avenue in West Ridge when he struck a pothole and suffered a fatal head injury.
• On June 28 an allegedly intoxicated hit-and-run driver struck and killed 13-year-old Issac Martinez on his bike on the 8300 block of South Lawndale Avenue in Ashburn.
• On July 13 a hit-and-run driver struck and killed Walter M. Williams, 72, on his bike on the 1500 block of South Central Park Avenue in North Lawndale.