Death by Driver Once Again
By Jocelyn Geboy in Miscellaneous on Sep 6, 2007 3:00PM
We've gone around and about a lot of times about a couple key subjects: How relevant losing Marshall Fields is in the grand scheme of things, Hipster/Yuppie, where does Whole Foods play into the life of a person looking to eat healthy and live on a budget? But another topic that never fails to get someone's ire up is that of biker vs. driver vs. pedestrian vs. driver vs. biker. Most people realize that there are drivers who are fucking ridiculously stupid, there are bicyclists who are equally as stupid, and there are pedestrians who seem to be begging to get run over by both. And we've been some form of all three at points in our lives.
However, the thing that seems to be so overarchingly simple is that in any case, a car will win. There's nothing a pedestrian is going to do to seriously injure a driver by hitting their car, and same goes for a bike and rider. Ultimately, no matter how annoying reckless riders and walkers can be, it's nearly always on the driver as far as we're concerned. (Which is why when we were confronted with a man riding the wrong way on Division in the middle of the street the other night, we were so pissed. What if?)
Unfortunately, another bicyclist has fallen to the tragic car/bike accident. Rev. Pavlo Hayda, 42, "was riding a bicycle eastbound in the 1900 block of East Oakton Street about 11 a.m. when he and an SUV collided as the SUV was exiting the driveway of an apartment complex" in Des Plaines. He was pronounced dead at 12:27 p.m. at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Hayda was the pastor of St. Joseph the Betrothed Ukrainian Byzantine-Catholic Church, and he is survived by four sons, including twins, two other brothers, and his parents, in addition to his wife and brother. He was also a visiting faculty member at DePaul University's School of New Learning, according to that school's Web site.
According to the Trib article, Hayda had just dropped off his car in Des Plaines to get it repaired, and was riding his bike back to the church when the collision occurred. The driver of the vehicle was ticketed for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident and failing to exercise due caution, police said. And that's where we lose our minds. How in the world is that all you get when a man is dead!? How is this even remotely acceptable? We understand that the driver might be traumatized, but what kind of speed are we talking about here? How about a charge that has the words "vehicular" or "manslaughter" in it? Involuntary, perhaps? People will simply not take care to watch out for bicyclists or be aware of the issue if people keep walking away with hardly a slap to the wrist.
"Churches069" by Veebl.