Ghost Bike Memorial Planned For Anastasia Kondrasheva, Latest Bike Fatality

By Stephen Gossett in News on Sep 27, 2016 8:40PM

Ghost Bike / Getty Images / Photo: Spencer Platt

A candlelight vigil will be held Friday evening for Anastasia Kondrasheva, the cyclist who was fatally struck in Roscoe Village on Monday morning. The memorial will take place at the crash site, at Damen Avenue and Addison Street.

Kondrasheva, 23, of Logan Square, was biking to her job at Andersonville health-and-wellness center Harken Health, where she worked as a Health Coach. At around 7:50 am, the driver of a flatbed truck turned right from Damen onto Addison and collided with Kondrasheva, who was traveling on Damen through the intersection. Two other cyclists—Virginia Murray and Lisa Kuivinen—died earlier this year in similar, right-hook crashes. The driver was cited for failure to take due care of a bicyclist in the roadway, according to a police spokesperson.

Kondrasheva was a 2015 Loyola University graduate. She also took classes at local circus school Aloft Circus Arts.

The memorial (6:30-7 p.m.) will include hundreds of votive candles and a ghost-bike dedication, and it will serve as a “public call to action” for safer streets, according to a note on the event page by organizer Rebecca Resman, organizer of Chicago Kidical Mass and co-founder of Chicago Family Biking.

With the recent passing of Nick Fox, who died on Sunday from complications after being hit by a train in June, six bicyclists have now been killed on Chicago streets this year. Last week, two cyclists were killed just beyond Chicago proper, in Franklin Park and in Evanston. As Streetsblog points out, six of those victims were fatally struck by commercial vehicles.

Earlier this month, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he was still committed to putting forth a plan to eliminate traffic fatalities. The multi-agency plan, known as Vision Zero, is expected to be released this fall, although no word has been given as to whether or how the proposal will target the routine culprits of commercial-vehicle and right-hook collisions.

Resman, however, is not impressed with the city's slow response. "In light of the 6 bicyclists and 18 pedestrians that have been killed in Chicago in 2016, many of which involving large commercial vehicles in densely populated neighborhood streets, we no longer accept the empty promises of Chicago’s Vision Zero Plan," she told Chicagoist.

"If the city truly wants to reduce the number of people killed in our streets to zero by 2026, than we need infrastructure, education on how to use it, enforcement of the existing laws and a specific action plan for reducing the injuries and fatalities caused by people that professionally drive commercial vehicles," Resman added.

Visitors had left flowers at the Addison and Damen crash site on Tuesday morning, as seen in a photo taken by cycling-advocacy lawyer Brendan Kevenides.

A GoFundMe page to hep support Kondrasheva's family was created on Tuesday.

This post has been updated.