Bicyclist Struck, Killed on Dan Ryan Expressway

By Kevin Robinson in News on Aug 31, 2010 1:30PM

AS listed in yesterday's "Extra Extra," Edgewater resident Christopher Hippchen was struck and killed in northbound express lanes of the Dan Ryan expressway while riding his bicycle. Illinois State Police say Hippchen, who didn't own a car and worked part-time as a cook for a catering company at Soldier Field, was hit around 9 p.m. Sunday after being stuck by an SUV near 55th Street. Neither the state police nor Hippchen's friends or family know what he was doing at that location. Keisha West, who was driving on the Dan Ryan at the time, told the Tribune, "he looked like one of those bike messengers waiting at a stoplight. It looked like he was about to dart out." She said she thought she was imagining things.

Illinois State Police Trooper Clare Pfotenhauer told WLS that Hippchen was riding south in the northbound lanes when he tried to cross the expressway and was hit. Neither Hippchen's mother nor his friends know why he might have been on the Dan Ryan with his bicycle. “He just made a bad decision,” Hippchen's mother Shelley said Monday from her home in Homer City, PA.

HIppchen was a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute. He started working at Soldier Field on an internship, and stayed on after graduation. His mother said that he planned to continue his education and become a sous chef. “When he came home to visit, he always had to cook for us,” she said. “He was an excellent cook.”