Man, 33, fatally struck by sedan driver in East Garfield is 2nd person recently killed on an e-moto by a motorist who ran a red in Chicago
Tragically, a 33-year-old man riding an electric motorcycle was struck and killed by a driver who disobeyed his traffic signal early yesterday morning in East Garfield Park. Compounding the tragedy, this was the second example of this kind of traffic crash on Chicago streets within three weeks.
According to the initial Chicago Police Department statement on Sunday, October 4, around 6:06 a.m. a 33-year-old male was traveling west on Lake Street on a “bicycle.”
While all other reports I’ve seen on the case used this terminology, or called the device an “e-bike,” an ABC7 Chicago report includes footage of a fat-tired Miyazaki vehicle. All the vehicles of this style on the company’s website have motors of at least 1,000 watts.
According to Ride Illinois, a bicycle advocacy organization that lobbied for a recently passed state law regulating electric micromobility vehicles, “Devices with an electric motor greater than 750 watts are not e-bikes.” They add, “Any type of device with an electric motor beyond a Class 1, 2, or 3 electric bicycle is not a legal e-bike and should not be advertised, sold, offered for sale, or labeled as an e-bike. These devices are commonly referred to as e-motos [i.e., electric motorcycles] or Out-of-Class Electric Vehicles.” These high-speed vehicles often or usually don’t involve pedaling.
As the e-moto rider on Lake crossed Homan Avenue, at a northeast corner of the Garfield Park green space, he was struck by the adult male driver of a black, two-door sedan, police said. The victim was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The driver, who stayed on the scene, suffered an injury to his hand, but declined emergency medical services. Footage from the ABC report shows that his windshield was shattered.
This evening, Police News Affairs told Streetsblog the driver “was given a citation for disobeying a traffic-control signal.”
Less than three weeks ago on Monday, September 14, around 5:15 a.m., a pickup driver ran a red light, fatally struck Juan Martin Márquez, 54, and then ran away from the crash site. According to the Illinois Traffic Crash Report the victim was riding a YOULON Z10 electric motorcycle with a 2000 watt battery. This evening, News Affairs said there are no updates on that case.
According to a Chicago Department of Transportation spokesperson, CDOT does not classify electric motorcycle crashes as bicycle crashes in its Monthly Fatal Crash Summaries, which typically are released a month or two after the collisions take place.
Likewise, Streetsblog Chicago does not classify e-moto cases as bicycle deaths or currently include them in our Fatality Tracker, which covers bike, pedestrian, and e-scooter cases, just as we do not include gas-powered motorcycle cases. However, deadly e-moto crashes are also tragic, especially when they are caused by reckless motorists, as these two recent crashes were, and we are trying to keep our readers informed about these cases.
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