Last month, Streetsblog Chicago discussed three recent bike injury and fatality cases in the northern suburbs of Morton Grove, Skokie, and Lincolnwood, all of which took place on wide Illinois Department of Transportation-controlled roads. Last night there was another tragedy, as a hit-and-run driver killed another person biking in Skokie.
And ironically, not long after there was pushback against plans for for new bike lanes on Church Street in Skokie at a June public meeting, on Monday the Village of Lincolnwood reportedly went back on its plans for bike lanes on Pratt Avenue.
Here's a summary of the three earlier bike crashes:
• On Tuesday, July 9, at Dempster Street and Lehigh Avenue in Morton Grove, where the North Branch Trail crosses Dempster, a driver fatally struck Michael Rapp, 74, as he rode across Dempster.
• On Wednesday, July 24, at Gross Point Road and Skokie Boulevard in Skokie, a driver struck and critically injured Jewel employee Joey Center, 27, as he left work by bike.
Update 8/20/24, 9:00 AM: Tragically, Joey Center has died from his injuries, according to an August 19 Chicago Tribune report.
• Also on the evening Wednesday July 24, there was a report that a driver struck a bike rider at Touhy Avenue and McCormick Boulevard in Lincolnwood, by the North Shore Channel Trail, causing a head injury. See tweet below.
The Lincolnwood crash case
Fortunately, Streetsblog recently got some good news about the Lincolnwood case: The victim wasn't critically injured, and appears to have declined hospitalization. While I haven't seen any news coverage of the case, and the Lincolnwood Police Department declined to immediately discuss the case, they responded to a Freedom of Information Act request for the traffic crash report. Some identifying info about the cyclist was blacked out from the document.
The crash report indicates that the person biking wasn't seriously injured, because he spoke with responding officers, and declined hospitalization.
As I previously discussed, Touhy/McCormick is a huge intersection with six lanes in each direction and wide turning radii, which encourages motorists to speed, and make fast turns around corners.
That's particularly dangerous next to the trail, since drivers are alloweded to make turns crossing the path at the same time trail users are given a walk signal. Collisions are common on the path's multiple main street crossings, so the authorities should install dedicated pedestrian and bike crossing signal phases ASAP.
The crash report's narrative states that the bike rider, a male whose age was blacked out, told officers that around 9:28 p.m. he was riding south on the trail when he crossed Touhy in the crosswalk with the "Walk" signal. That was when the male driver of a possibly yellow or gold-colored sedan, heading north on McCormick, made a right onto Touhy, eastbound, causing the bike rider to strike the car on the driver's side. The driver, who had two females in the back seat "got out of their vehicle and yelled at [the cyclist] before fleeing the scene without providing him any information or rendering aid."
It's disturbing that the driver, who was responsible for yielding to people in the crosswalk while making the right, but failed to do so, behaved this way, so hopefully he will be brought to justice. But it's a relief that the person biking wasn't severely injured.
The recent Skokie fatality
Sadly, that wasn't the case with yesterday evening's Skokie bike crash. According to a report this morning by Patch's Jonah Meadows, two different drivers fatally struck a man, 37, Tuesday around 10:30 p.m. in the 3500 block of Oakton Avenue, and one of the motorists fled the scene.
According to police, one of the motorists was driving east in the center lanes of Oakton, in a five-lane segment between Central Park and St. Louis avenues, when the driver struck the person biking, who fell to the ground, Patch reported. Another eastbound motorist in a dark-colored vehicle in the curb lane then hit the victim, and fled east on Oakton.
According to Patch, the bike rider was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His identity had not yet been released. Anyone with information about the incident should call the Skokie Police Department non-emergency line.
Update 8/8/24, 11:15 AM
In a report on the evening of Wednesday, August 7, ABC7 Chicago identified the victim as Carlos Medina, a CTA electrician who worked near the crash site. Relatives told the network Medina lived his whole life on the same block of Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, and enjoyed commuting to Skokie by bike.
"He wanted to retire with CTA," his sister Maria Medina told ABC. "He was just a good, hardworking guy. It's unbelievable. Unthinkable. Unbelievable." Her message to the hit-and-run driver: "I hope you find it in you to come forward. Take responsibility for what you did."
Read the ABC7 Chicago report here.
The canceled Lincolnwood bike lane plans
In the wake of these recent bike crash cases, cycling advocates Robert Keding and Matt Jameson each shared the bad news about the Pratt Avenue bike lane plan from Monday's Lincolnwood village meeting with Streetsblog. The bikeway was planned to run between Lincolnwood Drive (near Cicero Avenue and the Edens Expressway) and McCormick Boulevard (next to the North Branch Trail).
"Their board prioritized aesthetics and parking over the safety of cyclists, as they are going back on their plans," Jameson said. "I hope you guys cover this as they are giving back grant money in response to resident who don’t even live along Pratt."
We'll take a closer look at this issue in the near future. In the meantime, you can check out a video of the meeting on the village website. The segment about Pratt starts at 39:59 in the video.
But obviously, with the recent epidemic of bike crashes in the near-northern suburbs, including one in Lincolnwood, it's very disappointing to hear that the village is reneging on its plans to make cycling safer.
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