A 32-year-old cyclist was killed in a Chicago bicycle accident on the Northwest Side after being struck by a van in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, The Chicago Tribune reported on Tuesday.
After the accident, the driver left the van and fled, according to police.
The bicyclist was riding in the 3800 block of West Diversey Avenue shortly after noon when the van veered into his path, police reported. He was pronounced dead at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
A relative told ABC7 that the bicyclist had been on the way to a job interview. Police were searching for the van’s owner as part of the continuing investigation.
Accident data for Cook County and the surrounding area continues to show that pedestrian accidents and bicycle accidents are a leading cause of injury and death in Chicago traffic fatalities.
Through the end of September, more than 1 in every 3 of Chicago’s 110 fatalities involved a bicyclist or a pedestrian.
Hit-and-run drivers account for a large portion of traffic fatalities — more than four people a day die in an accident where the at-fault driver does not stop, according to a report by AAA.
Each day, another 72 are injured by hit-and-run drivers.
In October, the Chicago Car Accident Lawyers blog reported on a rash of hit-and-run accidents being investigated by police.
This fall, police launched a program aimed at reducing the number of Chicago pedestrian accidents occurring at night by increasing enforcement and stationing undercover police officers in crosswalks and other areas at high-risk for such accidents.