Skip to content
Sponsored

Today's stories are presented by

Driver fatally struck pedestrian Refaat Shafikmeshreki, 71, in Douglas

Shafikmeshreki was the fourth person walking on Chicago streets killed this year.
Driver fatally struck pedestrian Refaat Shafikmeshreki, 71, in Douglas
The 3400 block of King Drive, looking north. Image: Google Maps

On Wednesday, March 3, a motorist struck and killed 71-year-old Refaat Shafikmeshreki as he walked in the Douglas community area on the Near South Side.

At about 6:10 p.m., Shafikmeshreki was walking in the street in the 3400 block of South King Drive, according to police. A woman, 44, struck him while driving north. In this location, King is a wide, six-lane road, which encourages speeding.

The victim was taken to the University of Chicago medical center, where he was later pronounced dead, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy ruled that his death was accidental.

The motorist told responding officers that “Shafikmeshreki was walking in the roadway near the crosswalk and continued to walk into traffic,” according to a Sun-Times report. Police cited her for failure to exercise due care for a pedestrian in the roadway.

Pedestrian: 4
Bicyclist: 0

Note: Streetsblog Chicago’s traffic death numbers represent fatal crashes on Chicago surface streets, based on media reports and/or preliminary Chicago Police Department data released by the Chicago Department of Transportation.

Photo of John Greenfield
In addition to editing Streetsblog Chicago, John has written about transportation and more for many other local and national publications. A Chicagoan since 1989, he enjoys exploring the city and region on foot, bike, bus, and train.

Read More:

Comments Are Temporarily Disabled

Streetsblog is in the process of migrating our commenting system. During this transition, commenting is temporarily unavailable.

Once the migration is complete, you will be able to log back in and will have full access to your comment history. We appreciate your patience and look forward to having you back in the conversation soon.