A total of six bicyclists have been struck and killed by large commercial vehicles in Chicago this year – with a woman struck and killed Monday and a man dying of his injuries over the weekend from an earlier train collision.
Monday’s fatal crash came a week after Bicycling magazine rated the city the best for biking in the United States, and occurred as Chicago is working on a three-year “Vision Zero” plan aimed at eliminating all traffic deaths.
“This is another tragedy that underscores the urgency of our mission,” said Chicago Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey, referring to the Vision Zero planning.
The city usually sees about six bicycling deaths in a full year, so the total is already at the year’s average with more than three months to go. The total includes the death of a man whose bicycle was struck by a train in June and died of his injuries Sunday, the Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed Tuesday.
This year’s fatal crashes, all occurring since June, have been particularly unsettling for the city’s bicycling community since they have happened in such a short span of time and all involved large vehicles. In Monday’s accident, Anastasia Kondrasheva, 23, died after she was hit by a flatbed truck in Roscoe Village on the North Side during the morning rush hour.
Kondrasheva was riding north on Damen Avenue when she was hit by a truck that was also headed north on Damen and was turning right onto Addison Street, police said.
“I was in shock, I started shaking,” said a woman who saw the accident. “Everyone was running around, stopping traffic, calling police and trying to help.”
The truck driver, a 38-year-old man, was cited for failure to exercise due care around a pedestrian, said Officer Michelle Tannehill, a police spokeswoman. A sign on the truck was for Westmont Interior Supply House, a west suburban company that distributes commercial acoustical ceilings, drywall and other material. No one answered a call at the company Monday afternoon.
The witness to Monday’s crash said she saw Kondrasheva lying in the street a few feet from the sidewalk, still wearing a helmet. Her bicycle was nearby.
Rebecca Resman, 34, of Roscoe Village, a bicycle advocate who organizes rides for kids and families in the neighborhood, said she and others are planning a vigil at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Addison and Damen.
Five other people have died in collisions between bicycles and vehicles this year, according to officials:
* Blaine Klingenberg, 29, a bike messenger struck and killed by a tour bus on the Gold Coast on June 15. He was a few hundred yards from Oak Street Beach when he was hit by a double-decker bus at Oak Street and Michigan Avenue, according to police.
* Nick Fox, 52, who died Sunday of complications of multiple injuries after his bicycle was struck by a train at 59th Street and Narragansett Avenue on June 26, according to the medical examiner’s office.
* Virginia Murray, 25, who was riding a Divvy bike when she was struck by a flatbed truck near Sacramento and Belmont avenues in the Avondale neighborhood July 1. She is believed to be the first person killed while riding a bike-sharing bicycle in the United States.
* Lisa Kuivinen, a 20-year-old student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was bicycling south in the 800 block of North Milwaukee Avenue on Aug. 16 near a construction site when a semitrailer crossed into the bike lane and struck her bike, killing her, police said.
* A day after Kuivinen was killed, Francisco Cruz, 58, was struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. A white cargo van hit Cruz in the 4000 block of West Maypole Avenue and then fled the scene.
Kyle Whitehead, government relations director for Active Transportation Alliance, said the bicycle fatalities push bike and pedestrian advocates to focus on larger vehicles of all types as part of the “Vision Zero conversation.”
The city has promised that it would release a three-year Vision Zero plan this fall. Vision Zero is an ambitious international road safety project that aims for zero deaths and serious injuries from traffic crashes.
The city had announced earlier this year that it would be among 10 cities joining the Vision Zero program, and has been working on a plan with city agencies and stakeholders like the Active Transportation Alliance, which promotes safe biking, walking and transit.
The project involves 10 city departments and agencies, including public health, fire, the CTA and police.
Personal injury attorney Brendan Kevenides, whose firm specializes in bike crashes, said it should not be difficult for drivers to spot bicyclists on their righthand side, an apparent factor in Monday’s accident. Cyclists, as slower-moving vehicles, are encouraged to stay to the right in traffic.
“It shouldn’t be difficult to see a bicycle if you are looking for them. This happened during rush hour. There are lots of bicyclists that use Damen. It’s marked to be shared by motor vehicles and bicyclists.
There’s no reason a commercial truck driver or a car driver shouldn’t be looking for a bicycle,” Kevenides said.
Kevenides said the right-hook crash, the same type that claimed the life of Virginia Murray, is a “very common” type of crash, “probably third” behind “doorings” — where a bicyclist runs into the opened door of a parked car — and left crosses, where a bicycle proceeds through an intersection and is hit by a driver turning left.
There are at least two measures that can be taken to prevent right-hook crashes, Kevenides said.
“It’s something that should be emphasized in driver’s license tests, when you’re looking to turn right, look in your sideview mirror for cars and bicycles,” Kevenides said. “With commercial vehicles, there’s a push in the advocacy community to add safety guards along the sides of big trucks, along the sides of the wheels … so bikes can’t go under them.”
Another solution could be concrete protections at intersections to prevent right hooks, he said.
Bicycling magazine gave Chicago the top spot for cycling because of its increased use of protected bike lanes and its expansion of the Divvy bikeshare program into less affluent areas.
Twitter @marywizchicago
