October 21, 2007
Bicyclist's Death Questioned and Mourned
Last night, a memorial bike ride was held in memory of Craig Murphey. Murphey, a 26-year-old who worked at the West Harlem Action Network Against Poverty, was biking when he was hit by an oil truck at Union Avenue and Ten Eyck Street in Williamsburg.
The truck driver was not charged, and an earlier report had stated that Murphey was biking in the "wrong direction" (opposite of street traffic). However his friend Elizabeth Weinberg told Streetsblog:
We know for a fact that he was coming from Lorimer (at Broadway) at that time (dropping off our friend) and heading to his place on South 3rd in Brooklyn, so he had to have been going NORTH on Union Ave, not south like the police report said. There is no way Craig would be riding against traffic and he had no reason to head back down in the opposite direction from home. He rode to work everyday in Harlem from Brooklyn; he knew what he was doing.A ghost bike was also placed at the intersection. There will be a candlelight vigil for Murphey tonight at 9PM at Macri Park; more details at Williamsboard.
There's a page about him at LoveBryan and there's a Flickr pool of Craig Murphey photos. Murphey had a photoblog, LOOK IT and a MySpace page.
And many people have been demanding that the city work on "street and signal engineering, agencies jurisdiction, enforcement and traffic safety laws, reporting traffic problems and police procedures in accidents," but not much has happened.
Photograph of Craig Murphey's ghost bike by elizabeth weinberg on Flickr; she also has a set from the memorial ride
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god this breaks my heart and enrages me.
There was another bike accident the same day in Bed-Stuy, are they going to put up a ghost bike on Utica & Fulton too?
::c::
ultraclay, yes, there is a plan to put up a ghost bike there as well. at this point ghost bike activists do not know exactly when. folks who are involved in this are hoping to hear from friends and/or family to work together on this, but they do not know who to contact. so far the victim's name has not been disclosed to the public, and that may very well be at the request of loved ones which is fine to maintain privacy, etc.
many cycling and pedestrian activists wish to respect and honor ALL fatalities regardless of who they are and where the deaths happen, but they can only do so much given the lack of reporting there is, etc.
as with any tragic accident, this is very, very sad. i did not know craig well, but he meant a lot to some of my friends. i feel terribly for everyone this has affected, including the driver.
as a general note, i wish everyone - pedestrians, bikers and drivers - would simply be more careful out there. slow down and pay attention.
its very sad and again brings up the issue of street safety in general. Every morning as I attempt to cross a very busy intersection in midtown, cyclists are zooming by, coming from the wrong direction. Every morning. It can be downright scary at times. This is dangerous behavior. Bikes are vehicles too, and need to observe the traffic laws, or be ticketed as a car would be. This means stopping at lights and stop signs, going with the traffic, not against it, and not weaving in & out of traffic. Only when all vehicles agree to comply with the law will a safe enviornment be possible for bikes, cars, and pedestrians. And then possibly, there will be fewer fatalities like the recent tragedy in Brooklyn.
OOOOooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh...........a ghost bike. How scary. Is that for Halloween?