A 25-year-old woman was killed in Chicago Friday morning when a commercial truck crushed the bike-share bicycle she was riding, reports say. She appears to be the first fatality in any bike-share incident in the U.S. since such programs were introduced in 2007.
Deaths of bike-share riders have been reported at “zero” across the U.S. by several studies, some of which came out as recently as April 2016. Tragically it looks like that record was changed today.
“The truck and the woman were both going north on Sacramento, when they both turned east at Belmont and collided,” as the Chicago Tribute cites police spokesman Officer Jose Estrada. “Initially, the woman was taken in critical condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center but later was pronounced dead.”
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She appears to have been riding a blue Divvy Bike.
Divvy’s a bike-sharing outfit owned by the Chicago Department of Transportation funded with federal grants and local taxes. It apparently maintains “more than 580” bike sharing stations across the Chicagoland region.
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DNAinfo reports that “no citations had been issued to the truck’s driver, and the investigation is ongoing,” also citing Officer Estrada.
I will resist speculating specifics. My sincerest condolences, whatever they’re worth, to the family and friends of this woman. Hopefully a complete investigation will bring useful details to light.
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