A person riding a bike was killed in an apparent hit-and-run at Dexter and Thomas in South Lake Union. The collision happened at 3:45 p.m., according to King 5. After the collision, the driver of the brown, American-made SUV with tinted windows and a chrome roof rack fled the scene.
UPDATE 7/29 12 pm: The King County Medical Examiner has confirmed that the man has died.
Condolences to his friends and family.
UPDATE 7/28 7:45 pm: KOMO says the victim has not died, but is actually on life support. King 5 and KOMO had reported the victim’s death after hearing it from SPD officers at the scene.
UPDATE 7/29: The Seattle Times has a few more details:
The critically injured cyclist on Thursday was described as a man in his 40s.
He was riding north on Dexter in the designated bicycle lane when he was hit by a southbound SUV turning east onto Thomas Street, according to employees in the area who had spoken to a key witness.
The driver sped through the intersection, they said, causing a terrific noise, before stopping briefly then taking off.
UPDATE 7/29 10:30 am: KIRO reports that the victim has died. KIRO did not report the death yesterday when other stations and this site had reported it erroneously. We will update when we learn more.
Original post (with changes):
UPDATE 6:45 pm: Johnathan Fitzpatrick (@JJtweets) was on the scene and tweeted that there were witnesses, according to SPD. KOMO spoke with one witness and a local business owner:
A witness said the car was trying to turn left onto Thomas from Dexter when a line of oncoming cars began approaching. The driver speedily made the turn and hit the bicyclist, the witness said.
A nearby business owner said the sound of the impact stopped her in her tracks.
“I just heard a horrible, loud impact, like something being hit,” said Patricia Cameron. “And I saw the bicyclist totally not moving down on the ground.”
This is the second serious bicycle collision in the region this week. John Przychodzen was killed in Kirkland July 22 after a pickup struck him from behind.
Comments
6 responses to “Person biking on Dexter killed, SUV driver flees the scene – UPDATED”
It disgusts me that I live in a community with pieces of shit like this.
Kiro is now reporting that the cyclist has died.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/28698775/detail.html
RIP buddy, god speed.
This sad episode marks the second completely avoidable fatality involving a cyclist and a car this week. It does not have to be like this. Dexter is at least four lanes wide, plus a turning lane, plus two parking lanes. Couldn’t we find a way to have safe bike lanes, with controlled intersections and good sight lines, so cyclists don’t have to put their lives on the line every time they ride to work, school, etc.?
My deepest sympathies to the cyclist’s family and friends.
Years ago, I thought John Schubert, technical editor for Adventure Cyclist, wrote that no American motorist had ever been sucessfully prosecuted and jailed for running down and killing a cyclist from the rear. I had extensive correspondence with him and John Allen, an expert in bicycle safety who wrote Bicycle Street Smarts that advocates taking more of the lane. Guess what? It works. I would be happy to forward all the correspondence I had with these two experts to anyone who sends me an email. It makes for terrific reading. [email protected]
[…] man killed Thursday while biking on Dexter has been identified as Mike Wang, 44, a photographer for a nonprofit who rode his bike to work from […]
There’s a new saying in China: “On the Internet everyone knows you’re a dog.” We can only hope the person that did this is exposed and jailed. I believe that we need a regime and culture of responsibility around driving multi-ton vehicles, but most people believe that accidents are just accidents, an inevitable part of driving, and part of the cost for the social benefits of general mobility. That may apply to accidents like last weeks’ in Kirkland. But a hit-and-run is an intentional, cowardly, criminal act that robs the victim of an opportunity for timely help. There’s no excuse or justification.
I’ll be by the site tomorrow. Perhaps I’ll come up with something meaningful to bring…