This morning I biked to work for the first time. For the past few months, ever since I sold my car, I’ve usually taken the Metro to work, hoping on at Judiciary Square and getting off at Farragut North. But with Mel out of town for the week I’m sleeping up in Chevy Chase. I figured I’d bike down Connecticut Ave., stop at my Dad’s in Dupont to shower and change and then walk the couple blocks to work.
The plan worked to a T; I got up at 7am and was cruising down 18th by 7:40. As I got to 18th and R though a police car pulled up and blocked the street. I told the officer I lived on that block and asked if it was alright to continue, thinking their might have been a suspicious package or something like that. He said it was fine and I headed up the block. As I neared 19th St. I saw another police car blocking the street at 19th and R so you couldn’t continue down R to Connecticut. Further up the street, at R and Connecticut were a bunch of police cars and a garbage truck pulled over on the side of the street.
When I got to my Dad’s Lesley was out in the front gardening and I asked her if she knew what was going on. She said a woman had come by and said a cyclist had been hit by a garbage truck, hence the police and the pulled-over garbage truck. Though there’s a clear biker’s lane running all the way down R St., as Lesley pointed out cars often drive in it, especially when turning from R right onto 19th or Connecticut Ave.
Anyway I parked my bike in the downstairs apartment, showered and then walked to work. The first thing I did when I got in was search the internets for news reports. Nothing came up at first but then a couple hours ago NBC 4 put up a brief item saying the woman who had been hit by the garbage truck died. An hour ago the Post put up a longer item:
A 22-year-old bicyclist was struck by a garbage truck and killed just north of Dupont Circle today, authorities said. Police and fire vehicles converged on the scene at 20th and R streets NW, snarling Connecticut Avenue traffic during the morning rush.
The victim was struck at 7:37 a.m., D.C. police spokesman Kenny Bryson said. An officer in the uniformed division of the Secret Service was nearby and pulled the woman from under the truck to administer CPR, said Alan Etter, a spokesman for the D.C. Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services.
She could not be revived.
“The truck just ran completely over her,” Etter said.
The truck was owned by KMG Hauling Inc., a Sterling-based company. In a telephone interview, KMG Hauling owner Hugo Garcia said his company is investigating details of the accident.
“We’re looking at everything, trying to figure out what happened,” Garcia said. “It looks like an unfortunate accident. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased.”
…
Some two hours after the accident, the mangled bicycle was still visible under the truck’s right front tire. A helmet and a backpack could be seen on the street a few feet away.
Parts of Connecticut Avenue were closed for more than two hours, along with portions of 20th and R streets just east of Connecticut.
Just totally sucks. And there’s no real reason why it couldn’t have been me instead of this poor woman.
That is so upsetting. I was actually thinking about that on my run outside on busy streets today–please always be so careful.
I’m sorry you had such a tough morning.
oh Jake, please please be careful!