Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on August 6, 2011 at 3:47am

This is so tragic.

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Permalink Reply by S.Presley☠ on August 6, 2011 at 5:50am

This is a nightmare...

 

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Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on August 6, 2011 at 7:57am

In my own nieghborhood, very sad.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Bracht on August 6, 2011 at 8:25am

I did not read the story, because the radio story on WBBM painted an awful situation. They said. The cyclist lost he balance at a stop light and fell under the wheels of a large dump truck, the cyclist tried to get up and crawl out of her predicament, but the light changed and she was crushed. Not that this is any more tragic than other cycling deaths, but the struggle to survive and knowing what is about to happen as you try to climb out of there is awful.

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Permalink Reply by Tim S on August 6, 2011 at 9:32am

woah, that is horrible.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Markus on August 7, 2011 at 3:42pm

This should be a wake up call for riders dealing with the traffic on ANY city street. We need to respect the potential of the behemoths around us. passing busses oin the right, squeezing twixt parked cars and moving traffic and being very cognizant that every driver within striking distance knows you are there.

We see it all the time: CTA bus approaching an intersection with a bus stop, bike moving slightly faster than vehicles because the right side of the lane is open due to cars bailing left to avoid the bus. Rather than also merging left the biker squeezes twixt the bus and the parked cars/curb to pass the bus (a presence carrying the potential of mass destruction to a body on a bike).

From the early reports this rider put herself in the position between a dump truck and parked cars which was so narrow she lost balance enuf to fall. My contention is the few seconds she gained by not just waiting behind the truck was not enuf to die for. Our daily 'lives' put us in enuf stress and danger we are lucky to greet the morning sun each day. To put ourselves needlessly at risk by manuevers like those I described and others to numerous to mention merely reinforces the anti bike attitude that we fight everyday.

The needless carnage and social backlash is part of the battle our civilization faces in attempting to change the society for the better...

Lets not let this woman pass in vain...learn and grow lets not die in vain for a foolish error.

Jeff

The Chicagoan

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Permalink Reply by S.Presley☠ on August 7, 2011 at 6:48pm

I've had questions from the time I heard the first report.

Gooseberry Pie! said:

I agree that we should all learn from our own and others' mistakes in the interest of living long healthy cycling lives, but I think there are a lot of assumptions being made here.  I'm pretty sure I've seen all the same reports you have, and I haven't seen anything about squeezing into a narrow space (wouldn't  that make her less likely to lose her balance?)  We don't really know what traffic was like-- Lollapalooza was letting out and it's possible that truck hadn't moved in quite a while.  Or it's possible she was there and the truck came up afterwards.  It drives me nuts as well to see cyclists endangering themselves, but in this instance we don't have enough of the details, and probably never will, to make a determination about what exactly caused this.

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Permalink Reply by in it to win it 8.0 mi on August 8, 2011 at 6:15am

Yes, very sad.  Yes, I've tried to pick up a few seconds/minutes with some questionable riding in the past.  A sobering wake up call for me. 

Be Careful! 

 

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on August 8, 2011 at 6:31am

No way to know what happened without having been there -and especially not by reading legacy-media reports.  Clicking on that link is not an option for me because I don't want to be enraged to the point of spontaneous-combustion by reading the comments that invariably will be posted after the article by unfeeling sub-human trash.  

 

Godspeed to this poor soul.  Falling under the wheels of a bus/truck in the street is just about the worst-case scenario in any nightmare.  It sickens me that this has happened to someone. 

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