I lost a good friend of mine today. Andrew Whitlock was 37 years old. | |
He was a great engineer and overall rad dude. He was killed while | |
riding his bicycle home from work yesterday. The criminal who ran him | |
over was evading police due to an earlier incident. They were using | |
the bicycle lane as a way to get around the cars stopped in traffic. | |
They have no regard for human life. They chose to mow an innocent man | |
over to avoid facing the ramifications of their crime and now a | |
brilliant engineer, son and friend is no longer alive. | |
I recently started riding my bicycle to work a few days a week. I've | |
always known the risks of riding on public roadways. I've been an avid | |
cyclist since before I could drive. This is not the first time I've | |
known someone hit by a motor vehicle but this is the first time I've | |
had someone I knew well killed in such a way. And of all the ways to | |
have it happen, the most painful thing is that he was doing everything | |
correctly. He uses lights, wears a helmet, was riding in the bike | |
lane, obeyed traffic signals, everything. Sometimes you're just | |
unlucky I guess. | |
It started last night, a friend of mine called to make sure I was ok. | |
He said some cyclist had been hit in the city and he wanted to make | |
sure it wasn't me. This morning I woke up to an article about it in my | |
news feed. They had just released the victims name. I couldn't believe | |
it at first. I started messaging everyone I knew who would know if it | |
was him. I got the first unconfirmed answer around 0930. Andrew hadn't | |
shown up for work yet, he was two hours late. A few hours later I | |
received an email from a friend who worked with him. It was an email | |
from the company they worked at confirming that Andrew had been | |
killed in a bicycling accident last night. | |
It was weird. It still is weird. It's been a weird day. Maybe it'll | |
get easier. Maybe I'll keep riding to work eventually. For now, I | |
think I'll be driving to the office. At least for a little while. Once | |
the shock of it all wears off and I can really let it sink in that | |
this was one of those freak accidents. Once I can go back to | |
convincing myself that statistically there are fewer bicycle accidents | |
on the roads than car accidents; fewer fatalities. Until then, I'll | |
cower in my metal box, endure the soul crushing traffic and bordum | |
that inevitably comes. |