Cyclist Killed In Crash In Avondale Is City's First Divvy Fatality
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A young woman was killed while riding a Divvy bike on Friday when she was hit by a truck in the Avondale neighborhood.
Virginia Murray, 25, was riding a Divvy bike north on Sacramento Avenue, and was turning east on Belmont, when a truck making the same turn ran her over just after 9 a.m.
Murray suffered head trauma, and was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.
Witness Santos Rojas works nearby. He says the driver of the flatbed truck stayed and tried to help the bicycle rider but knew there was nothing he could do.
"I pray for the life of the lady and I pray for the driver," Rojas tells CBS 2's Jeremy Ross.
It was the first fatality involving a Divvy bike since the program launched in 2013.
"Divvy and the City of Chicago express our deepest condolences to the rider's family and loved ones," the Chicago Department of Transportation said Friday afternoon.
According to a recent study, there have been no fatalities involving bike-sharing programs up until now since the first such program started in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2007.
