| March 2006 |
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Human Toll Compels Drive With Care Initiative Where There’s Speed, Death Follows March Conference First Step in Driving Initiative A Long, Healthy Life Cut Short on the Street Moving Region Toward Healthy Streets Minorities Bear Heaviest Share of Injury, Death |
A Long, Healthy Life Cut Short on the Street (The names in this article are withheld at the family’s request) The family members of a man in his late 80s mourn the loss of their
loved one, recently killed by a truck while bicycling in a Chicago
suburb. He was a father and a former businessman who had a life-long obsession with health and exercise. His daughter, remembered, “He was always an advocate of exercise since I was a kid: Bicycling. Walking. Exercise.” He believed that exercise was one of the components of a long and healthy life. Born during World War I, he earned a degree in engineering. He was an avid flyer and eventually had a successful business in plastics and a family who loved him, and still found time to exercise. By the time he retired, he swam almost every day and biked most places. “He was very independent,” recalled the daughter.
Frustrated by bus service and unable to drive, biking became his
main mode of transportation. He biked to church, to choir rehearsal, wherever he needed to go. His family worried about his safety, but he never did. He was biking when a truck backing down the street struck him. The ironic thing is that he was very healthy the day he died, his daughter recalled. “He thought exercise was the key to life.” Even though his life ended tragically, he was right. Most 88-year-olds wouldn’t be able to bike at all. Yet he was able to live life to the fullest until the last moment. The driver of the truck was ticketed with improper backing at the time of the crash. Emily Kirchner is a Bike Traffic volunteer writer and editor
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