Along DuSable Lake Shore Drive, a second loss for grieving woman
CHICAGO (CBS) – On DuSable Lake Shore Drive, a car slammed into a pole and took it out, but it's what else was a casualty that was a real gut punch to a Chicago woman.
CBS 2's Noel Brennan had the story on what seems to be a cursed spot on the road.
That's especially true during rush hour and especially for those trying to cross the busy road on foot or bike. Last year, there was a deadly crash at the spot and last month, that same loss was felt all over again.
Before they picked a home, Jaime Bolognone and Gerardo Marciales found each other.
"He just made each day better for me," Bolognone said.
She knew they were meant to be.
"I really saw it happening, so this was such a shock," she added.
Last February, Marciales was on a bike waiting to cross DuSable Lake Shore Drive at Balbo. Police said a driver used the left turn lane to skip traffic and run a red light.
"And when he did that, he hit Gerardo," Bolognone said.
February will mark one year since Bolognone lost the man she planned to marry.
The city widened the median at Balbo and added a concrete barrier to stop drivers from making the move that killed Marciales, but last month, grief struck again.
Christina Whitehouse with Bike Lane Uprising helped place a memorial bike at Lake Shore Drive and Balbo. That same bike was torn to pieces in that car crash just last month.
"He drove up onto the median at full speed, never hitting the brakes and just smashed through the light pole and Gerardo's ghost bike," Whitehouse said.
"Here we have a memorial there for someone who lost their life and now the memorial is destroyed," Bolognone said.
A month later, an orange cone marks the spot of a light pole that still hasn't been replaced.
"It's extremely dangerous," Bolognone said of that spot.
No change to the intersection will bring back Marciales. But Bolognone knows no one deserves the loss she experienced twice.
"Some changes have happened, but we're still not finished," she said.
The city's Department of Transportation said it expects the light pole to be back in place by the end of the month.
Bolognone wants to bring back Marciales' ghost bike to the same intersection and wants it to remain in pieces to remind everyone what happened.