Bike Fatalities

[Last year the Chicago Reader launched a weekly transportation column written by Streetsblog Chicago editor John Greenfield. This partnership allows Streetsblog to extend the reach of our livable streets advocacy. We syndicate a portion of the column after it comes out online; you can read the remainder on the Reader’s website or in print. The paper hits the streets on Thursdays.]

It’s been an awful two weeks for bike collisions in northeast Illinois. On Tuesday of last week, a 29-year-old woman was struck and injured on her bicycle at Jackson and Homan, by a police officer who witnesses say ran a red light without using lights or sirens. That Wednesday bike courier Blaine Klingenberg was fatally struck by a tour bus driver at Oak and Michigan, the first Chicago bike fatality of 2016

There’s been some good news in the case against the driver who killed cyclist Bobby Cann while allegedly drunk and speeding. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office announced today that they won an appeal to have the reckless homicide charge against motorist Ryne San Hamel reinstated. The charge had previously been dismissed by Judge William Hooks at a hearing last July.

A driver struck and killed a man on a bicycle and injured a pedestrian Sunday night in the North Lawndale neighborhood, according to the Chicago Police.

At a hearing today, Judge Nicholas Ford gave Robert Vais, the driver who struck and killed cyclist Hector Avalos while drunk, a relatively light sentence of 100 days in a state prison plus two years probation. Vais must also perform manual labor as part of the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program once a month for two years, and undergo drug and alcohol treatment.

John Jones, 48, died last Thursday, about a week after he was struck on his bicycle at the dangerous intersection of 79th Street, Stony Island Avenue, and South Chicago Avenue.

At last week’s Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting, Chicago Department of Transportation deputy commissioner Luann Hamilton discussed the fact that there were no fatal bike crashes in the city between May and August of this year. “It’s great, especially because we just got through the summer cycling season window, with more cyclists out than ever,” she said.

The crash site from the driver's perspective.

The crash site, looking northeast on Archer.