A person riding a bike died early on the morning of Sunday, August 4 in a crash in Independence.
The crash occurred at the intersection of College and Emery streets. The person was riding south on Emery when they were struck by the driver, who was heading west on College.
The driver stayed on the scene while the cyclist was rushed to a local hospital. The victim eventually died from their injuries.
“We want to extend our condolences to the family of the person who was killed,” said Eric Rogers, executive director for BikeWalkKC. “Regardless of the circumstances, the sad truth is that a person has lost their life.”
“I want to caution people from immediately writing this off as the fault of the cyclist alone. We should use this as an opportunity to see what additional changes we can make to the built environment to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
– Michael Kelley, Policy Manager at BikeWalkKC
As BikeWalkKC has stated in the past, what deserves the brunt of the blame for these crashes is the culture that values car traffic efficiency over the safety of human lives.
For more information, contact Karen Campbell, director of development and communications, at (816) 205-7056 (ext. 2) or by email at karen.capmbell@bikewalkkc.org.
BikeWalkKC believes that crashes are not accidents and clothing is not an excuse.