The Chainlink

Northwestern student bicyclist killed this afternoon on Sheridan Road

Very sad and particularly upsetting to the Northwestern community:   details are still sketchy this evening, but the Northwestern student newspaper is reporting an 18-year student was killed in a accident this afternoon with a cement truck on Sheridan Road bordering campus.

http://dailynorthwestern.com/2016/09/22/campus/northwestern-student...

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 23, 2016 at 10:39am

The news was heartbreaking enough without gratuitous victim blaming piled on.

Permalink Reply by Josh L. on September 23, 2016 at 6:08am

This is just horrible. So many of these recent accidents involve trucks. I wonder is there is any commonalities across these accidents we can learn so that truck drivers and cyclists can avoid these kinds of mishaps. I'm not clear is this due to blindspots for truck drivers, cyclists not expecting turns, etc.  It needs to stop!

Permalink Reply by Andy J on September 23, 2016 at 6:18am

I work on the Evanston campus and saw that Sheridan Rd was blocked off on my way home - I hoped that is was just for minor fender-bender.I guess my worst fears were realized. My sincerest condolences to the family of the victim.

A bit of perspective: the Evanston campus is undergoing a huge transformation: a number of building are either being built, expanded or renovated. I don't know of anyone that's not in awe of the amount of work being done. Some are calling the campus a war zone.

The result is an increase in contractor vehicle traffic (including a steady stream of cement trucks) and the closure of many of the pedestrian/bike paths on campus. The result is more foot/bike traffic is funneled to Sheridan Rd. Despite winning grant funds, in 2014, plans for a bike path on Sheridan have have been delayed:

http://evanstonnow.com/story/government/bill-smith/2014-04-14/62776...

http://evanstonnow.com/story/government/bill-smith/2014-09-30/66389...

Oddly enough, the cycling community at NU was just asked to participate in a survey; Northwestern applied for the Bicycle Friendly University Program, through the Leage of American Cyclists.

I hate being the guy who says, "it was just a matter of time" but in this case, I'm afraid that this is the case. It's a tragedy that it's going to take someone's death for Northwestern and Evanston to finally address this situation.

Permalink Reply by Andy J on September 23, 2016 at 8:33am

Nail on the head...

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 23, 2016 at 10:40am

This section of Sheridan has been plagued by speeding problems for decades. It's had fatalities in the past (ped and bike) and is likely to have them in the future if nothing is changed.  It needs a road diet and bike lanes. There is WAY too much ped traffic for sidewalks to be an acceptable substitute, especially since more students are riding bikes there now.

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on September 23, 2016 at 4:54pm

That part of Sheridan is also very rough and full of potholes so it's not great on the bike and cars trying to miss the worst of the road weave around. I used to drive home that way twelve years ago and it was just as bad when I rode through last Sunday.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 23, 2016 at 6:09pm

Doing a reconfiguration similar to what Wilmette did on their section on Sheridan would make a lot of sense: 1 through lane in each direction, with a center lane for left turns, and a bike lane in each direction.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on September 23, 2016 at 11:34am

I added an entry to the Another Cyclist Fatality thread last night. This morning I sent an email to the Sun-Times reporter. Their report still mentioned the lack of a helmet. I thought the Trib's did as well, but didn't notice it this morning, so perhaps their story has been edited by now to remove that comment. Here's my note:

I try and track all bicyclists' deaths involving motor vehicles. I've been doing it since the tragedy in Kalamazoo in June in which five cyclists were killed and four injured by a driver apparently terribly impaired by drugs and/or alcohol. My intent is to eventually build a spreadsheet or database with as much relevant data about these crashes as I can.

Last night, you posted a story about Chunyuan Qiu, a Northwestern freshman from China who collided with a cement truck and was apparently run over, resulting in her death. In it, you wrote, "Investigators said it is believed that the woman was not wearing a helmet." I'm sure you were just reporting the facts, but in a case like this, it is highly unlikely that if she had been wearing a helmet, it would have saved her life. In fact, as I thought about it last night, about the only benefit I can think a helmet might have been in this case would have been to delay the start of her final ride by a few seconds so that the cement truck was farther up Sheridan Road, turning a collision into a near miss. In a case where a bike rider is run over by a car or truck, about the only thing which would save them from death by crushing would be Iron Man's suit.

Bike helmets serve to protect cyclists in some situations (mostly notably falls at relatively low speeds), but they are not panaceas. All nine of the cyclists in Kalamazoo were apparently wearing helmets, yet five of them died. A bike helmet isn't going to save a person run over by a cement truck. Although the police can determine whether or not Ms Qiu was wearing a helmet or not, it is immaterial to the outcome of the crash. They might as well have reported whether she was wearing Nike or Adidas shoes, or whether she was wearing nail polish.

In the future, when you investigate cases like this, please don't ask immaterial questions about helmet use. If, unprompted, the police offer that the cyclist wasn't wearing a helmet, ask them why they think it is an important fact, and whether and how they think it would have changed the outcome. Unchallenged, all it does is serve as a small amount of victim blaming by the police. By stating she wasn't wearing a helmet, you are subtly suggesting that the crash was her fault. That may well have been the case, I don't know. It surely wasn't her fault because she lacked a bike helmet.

Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on September 23, 2016 at 12:18pm
The early news reports of this incident last evening went downhill when the Evanston Police spokesman made his statements. It seemed nearly all the media outlets just duplicated his judgment on it.
Permalink Reply by Shalini on September 23, 2016 at 12:23pm

Thank you for doing this. It needs to be said every time. I discussed this with friends at work this morning and their first reactions were about a biker they saw run a red light once or how bad bikers are. Awesome. Not to get all political here, but it reminds me of when people bring up black on black crime after an unarmed person is killed by a cop. That has no relevance in this case, but thanks for getting the bigger point about sharing the road safely with everyone.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 23, 2016 at 1:23pm

Thank you! Well said.

Permalink Reply by Alex on September 23, 2016 at 12:53pm
Hi, as you are aware a Northwestern student died in a bicycle accident yesterday. I am also a Northwestern student and I want to put a ghost bike on the tree near where she died. I have a vintage ladies bike that I think is fitting. However, I do not have the means to spray paint it white as spray paint is hard to get in Chicago. I was hoping that someone in your organization would be interested in assisting me in placing this ghost bike on Sheridan road in Evanston. Thank you and may she rest in peace.

Alex

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