2010.08.29 Bicyclist killed riding in Dan Ryan express lanes

Christopher Hippchen, 28

Sunday, August 29th 2010, 9:10pm.

Dan Ryan Expressway near 55th Street.

Not helmeted. "Alcohol does not appear to be involved."

Of the 5200 block of N. Sheridan Rd.

ChicagoBreakingNews.com:

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/08/bicyclist-killed-in-dan-...

Illinois State Police continue to investigate why a man was riding his bicycle in an express lane of the Dan Ryan Expressway when he was struck and killed by an SUV.

A friend said Christopher Hippchen, 28, often commuted by bike between his home in Edgewater and Soldier Field, where he worked as a cook for about the last three years.

But, the friend said, that didn't explain why Hippchen was riding in the Ryan's northbound express lanes Sunday at 9:15 p.m. near 55th Street, more than three miles south of the stadium. A manager says he didn't work a high school football game at Soldier Field Sunday night.

"I don't know what he was doing down there," said the friend, Brian Rowe.

Police say Hippchen was struck by a black Lexus LX470. The SUV did not leave the scene following the crash and police have not cited the driver in the incident, a state police dispatcher said. According to theIllinois Secretary of State Web site, bicycle riding is prohibited on expressways.

A motorist told the Tribune she was driving north on the Ryan near where the road splits off to the Stevenson Expressway at about 8:40 p.m. when she saw a man riding south on a "10-speed bicycle" in the northbound express lanes.

It was dark and the rider "came out of nowhere," said the woman, who did not want to be identified. This morning, when she heard the news of the incident a few miles south of where she had seen the bicyclist, she suspected it was the same man.

Keisha West was riding in a car with her mother north on the Ryan south of Garfield near the ramp from the Chicago Skyway when she saw a man in a T-shirt and shorts, standing over a bicycle on the left shoulder of the northbound express lanes.

"He looked like one of those bike messengers waiting at a stop light. It looked like he was about to dart out," said West, 23. "I thought I was imagining things."

Rowe said Hippchen graduated from Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute in 2002. Hippchen got an internship at Soldier Field and continued working there after the internship was over.

A spokeswoman for the Chicago Park District, which operates Soldier Field, confirmed that Hippchen worked part-time for SportService. The annual Preseason Prep Bowl was played at the stadium Sunday night, but the general manager at SportService said Hippchen was not working at the game. He declined to comment further.

Hippchen didn't own a car and often rode his bicycle via the Lakefront Trail to the stadium. He was usually careful, and Rowe had not heard of him riding on the expressway before.

"It always seemed safe," he said.

Rowe said his friend grew up in a small town in western Pennsylvania whose claim to fame, Hippchen often said, was that it was a Jimmy Stewart's hometown.

Hippchen, of the 5200 block of North Sheridan Road, was pronounced dead on the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Fox:

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/christopher-hippchen-dan...

WLS:

http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=1935496&spid=

Tribune (w/ comments):

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/tribnation/2010/08/bicyclist-on...

WBBM (w/ comments): "Cyclists’s mom: ‘He just made a bad decision’"

http://cbswbbmam.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/cyclistss-mom-he-just-mad...