Daniel Bench, 88, died after being struck by the driver of a truck near Edgewood and 24th Street on Aug. 4, the Boulder Police Department said on Tuesday. He was taken to the hospital with serious injuries following the crash and later died.
Police said the driver of a Chevrolet Silverado hit Bench while he was in a crosswalk. The driver remained at the scene, and the investigation is ongoing.
This is the first reported death involving a cyclist in Boulder this year, according to city crash data. In March, a driver was killed in a collision at Foothills Parkway and Arapahoe Avenue.
City data show the number of severe crashes in Boulder has remained largely unchanged over the past decade, despite the adoption of the city’s Vision Zero plan in 2014 that aims to eliminate severe crashes by 2030. The city’s latest efforts include adding bike lanes and safer intersections on its “core arterial network,” the busiest streets where most crashes occur.
What is the posted speed limit at that location? 25-mph? Slow enough to stop in a couple seconds unless that driver was not focused on the road.
I am not a bicyclist.
Westbound traffic have a speed bump just before the crosswalk so shouldn’t be moving fast. Eastbound traffic often pass a speed-radar van and then negotiate a turn just before the crosswalk and so also shouldn’t be moving fast.
The cyclist ran a stop sign and straight into the road directly in front of the truck. My source on this is I caught the entire situation on my cameras as we live at this intersection. Terrible situation but it truly doesn’t seem like the truck was at fault.
How fast was the truck going at the moment of impact,
This is very sad, and I feel for the family of the cyclist who was killed, as well as for the driver who I’m sure didn’t intend to cause such a tragedy. We don’t know the details of what happened yet, and should wait for the final police report to understand the degree of fault amongst those involved. But another question to ask might be what we can do to prevent this kind of crash from happening in the future. I hope the city transportation department and police department can get together with the Transportation Advisory Board and with folks from Community Cycles at the site and review what happened and how the street and crosswalk could be changed to prevent this from happening in the future. A key component of Vision Zero is that crashes can’t be avoided (people make mistakes), but we can build streets in anticipation of these mistakes and make sure such collisions do not produce fatalities or serious injuries. Most of this entails making sure that, when pedestrians and cyclists interact with vehicles, speeds are low and there is an opportunity for braking and avoidance. So, speed humps, raised crossings, clear sight lines, and clearer signage (the stop sign in the path in this case is not standard and is at a height of more than eight feet–I never even noticed it before even though I’ve used this trail frequently). Too often we just blame the driver or cyclist and don’t think about the systemic changes that could reduce the risk of such a terrible outcome.