On Tuesday, a 29 year old graduate student was struck by a car while riding her bicycle in the bike lane along north bound North Milwaukee Avenue just after 3:00 p.m. The cyclist was struck from behind as she approached the intersection with North Rockwell Street near the Congress Theater. The impact threw her from her bike and into the street where she struck her head with force significant enough to crack her helmet. She briefly lost consciousness.
An ambulance took her to Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center on Western Avenue, nearby. Though she has been released from the hospital, she continues to receive treatment for her injuries. Our law firm has been retained to represent the bicyclist.
I don't often hear about collisions where the person riding the bike is struck from behind. This seems to be a common fear, although ungrounded in collisions statistics.
ReplyDeleteI've seen those statistics too, but this is the second such case I've been involved in within the last year or so. Interestingly, both collisions occurred in the middle of the afternoon in good weather.
ReplyDeleteGetting drilled from behind is one of my big fears on my daily commute along Elston when I'm passing a car turning left and the cars behind me are using the bike lane to get around the left turning vehicle.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note: Last Friday (10/15) afternoon during my rush hour commute I encountered a police car driving down the wrong way in the bike lane with its emergency lights flashing which caused quite a bit of confusion since the cars and cyclists had no idea where to pull over to get out of the way - I ended up darting in between a couple of parked cars.