A crash injured a bike rider in North Center. Witnesses – including a 47th Ward staffer – indicate SUV driver should have been cited for an illegal turn, but wasn’t.

Judging from two different witness accounts – one of them from a 47th Ward staff member – it appears that officers should have ticketed an SUV driver for making a prohibited turn last Tuesday during the PM rush in North Center. The motorist collided with a person on bike, and the cyclist suffered facial injuries.

But the Chicago Police Department’s preliminary statement said the crash took place after rush hour. That would have meant it was legal for the motorist to hang a left. Perhaps due to this discrepancy, as of Thursday evening, the driver hadn’t been cited.

I first heard about this case on Wednesday, when I received an email from Richard Pallardy, a writer, researcher, and editor. In December 2017, a hit-and-run driver struck and seriously injured him while he was walking in Logan Square. I wrote an article for the Chicago Reader about his efforts to track down the driver.  

Richard Pallardy in 2017 at the intersection of Wrightwood and Kimball avenues in Logan Square, where he was struck by a hit-and-run driver last month. Photo: Jia Yue Yu for Chicago Reader

In his Wednesday email, Pallardy told me an SUV driver collided with a young woman on a bicycle on Tuesday evening around 5:20 p.m. at the six-way intersection of Irving Park Road, Damen Avenue, and Lincoln Avenue in North Center. “She was alert and sitting up when the ambulance came, so hopefully she is OK,” he wrote. “But she was banged up and bleeding from the head. The driver did stop.”

“This intersection, like most of the three-ways, is so incredibly dangerous,” Pallardy added. “I live nearby and cross it on foot daily. Even on a good day, aggressive drivers are edging into the crosswalk when pedestrians have the right of way. I end up shouting at someone a couple of times a week. Not sure what the solution is. Clearly these poorly designed intersections are artifacts of an earlier time. I have a utopian fantasy of ubiquitous pedestrian over/underpasses.”

To get more details about the North Center case, on Wednesday I asked Police News Affairs for CPD’s preliminary statement.

Streetsblog Chicago often uses more the detailed Traffic Crash Reports as a source for our writeups of pedestrian and bike collisions. But currently reporters needs the victim’s name, among other info, to quickly access these. Moreover, the crash report for Tuesday’s collision might not have been completed by Wednesday.

Here’s the text of the police statement:

2000 block of W. Irving Park Rd. on June 23, 2026, at approx. 6:34 p.m. (19th District)

A 25-year-old male was [driving] northwest on Lincoln Avenue and attempted to make a lefthand turn. While [the driver was] turning, a 30-year-old male bicyclist struck the side of his vehicle at the intersection. The 30-year-old bicyclist sustained abrasions to the face and was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital in good condition. The driver of the vehicle refused medical attention. No citations were issued.

You’ll notice two major differences between Pallardy’s account and CPD’s. The civilian told me the crash happened around 5:20 p.m., but the police put it at 6:34. And while Pallardy said the victim was a woman, while the police stated that the bike rider was a man.

When I shared the preliminary CPD statement with Pallardy, he emailed back that he was sure some of the information in it was inaccurate. He said that his cell phone’s call log shows he dialed 911 to report the crash at 5:19 p.m. He added that he was certain the victim was female.

On Thursday, I called local City Council member Ald. Matt Martin’s (47th) office to see if they had any more insights on the case. Martin is one of the most sustainable transportation-friendly politicians in City Hall.

I spoke with Ryan McCray, the ward’s director of policy and infrastructure, who started the job last January. I was later told he spoke to me on the phone as a citizen, rather than in the role of an official City spokesperson.

McCray said two other 47th Ward staffers happened to be at the intersection at the time of Tuesday’s collision. I asked him to pass along my contact info, but didn’t hear back from them by press time.

McCray confirmed Pallardy’s account that Tuesday’s crash happened not long after 5 p.m. McCray said that one of his colleagues notified him about the crash shortly after their office, located up the street at 4243 N. Lincoln Ave, closed at 5.

McCray happened to be free to investigate the situation himself, so he hopped on his bike, rode less than a half mile southeast on Lincoln, and arrived at the scene roughly five minutes after hearing about the collision. “I can confirm [the crash happened] around 5:20,” he said.

McCray told me that when he showed up, there was an ambulance present, and he assumed the victim was inside. He said the cyclist had been riding southeast on Lincoln Avenue. When McCray arrived at the intersection, there was a small pool of blood about five feet from a curb at the northwest corner of the six-way, where there’s an AT&T cell phone store.

McCray said the motor vehicle, a large black Lincoln SUV, was still there. There was a dent on the front passenger side, in keeping with his and the CPD’s descriptions of how the crash happened.

The exact time of the collision is very important to this case. There are signs on Lincoln Avenue facing both northwest- and southwest-bound motorists stating that left turns are not permitted on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

According to CPD’s and McCray’s saccounts, the SUV driver made a left turn from Lincoln. If he did so around 5:20 p.m., as Pallardy and McCray said was the case, then he broke the no-turn rule and should have been ticketed for that.

And even if the crash did occur at 6:34 p.m., as the police statement claimed, it appears there’s no dedicated left-turn phase for motorists on Lincoln Avenue, at any time. If that’s the case, the SUV driver should have still been cited for failure to yield to oncoming traffic, regardless of what time of day he made a left.

At end-of-day Thursday, News Affairs said no citations had been issued in the case.

Hopefully the bike rider will make a full and fast recovery. And let’s hope they can obtain security footage that shows exactly what happened in this case, and exactly when it occured.

After I spoke with McCray, 47th Ward Chief of Staff Lucy Nye emailed an official statement on behalf of the alder. “Ald. Martin is deeply concerned by the serious crash in which a motorist struck a cyclist at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue, Damen Avenue, and Irving Park Road,” it read. “In 2023, our office worked proactively to improve safety at this dangerous intersection. In the two years following those improvements, serious crashes declined 100 percent, injury crashes fell by 66 percent, and total crashes decreased 16 percent.” 

“Even one crash is too many,” she added. “We know more work is needed. This six-way intersection is one of the most dangerous in the ward, and bisects a state highway [Irving Park] – emphasizing the need for continued collaboration with state leaders about ways city and state planners can work together to improve public safety.” 

Here’s a gallery of some of the recent safety upgrades made at or near Irving Park/Damen/Lincoln. All photos shot today by yours truly.

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