Photos by Jeanne Vollmer
by Cynthia Price
Though deaths from bicycle/car collisions in the United States are far from astronomical, and are increasing only minimally, the number is well above zero, where it should be.
Reports of injuries are much higher, but still not shocking.
The number of bicyclist deaths in 2015 was 818, while in 2006 it was 772. Injuries numbered 44,000 in 2006 versus 45,000 in 2015.
But none of those statistics are very comforting if you have been injured or had a friend or relative die in a car crash while riding a bicycle, especially since so many of those accidents are preventable.
And that is one of the reasons for last week’s Ride of Silence, held on May 16.
The Ride of Silence is a national initiative which started 16 years ago. Its goals are to honor those who have been injured or killed, to raise awareness that bicyclists are here, and “to ask that we all share the road.”
The official rider count for the seventh annual Ride of Silence (RofS) in Muskegon was 66. The 7.5 mile ride started at the Muskegon Farmers’ Market, and there was a police escort.
According to the RofS senior outreach coordinator, Mark Hagan – who doubles as the local coordinator for the rides in Grand Rapids, Spring Lake, and Holland – the Muskegon RofS started out in 2012 under organizer Mark Dixon, who is still involved. He and Scott Blease, who has helped out over the years, started it during Bike to Work Week (covered in previous issues of the Examiner), which is now called Greater Muskegon Smart Commute Week and will be held June 11 to 15 this year.
For the last couple of years Tom Lindrup has led it up. As far as publicity to attract the riders, Lindrup says, “We put up large posters all over Muskegon County, relied on cycling Facebook sites like Roll On Muskegon, 231 Cycling Coalition, Fetch Cycling Group, Muskegon Smart Commute, iheart Radio, and Friends of the Fred Meijer Berry Junction Trail.”
Many of the cyclists who rode last Wednesday were in sympathy with injured cyclists. Sheila Molenkamp said, “My reason for riding in the event is to remember bicyclists who have died or been injured riding, and also to draw attention to the importance of sharing the road.”
But for others, the idea of being injured is not theoretical. One of those who wore a red arm band indicating he himself had been injured was Terry Welsh.
On Oct. 28, 2016, Welsh was bicycling eastbound up Marquette on his way home to Mill Iron Road. “After a rough day working I had phone my wife and let her know that I was going for a ride to blow off some steam,” Welsh says. A car swerved off the beaten path and hit Welsh, who flew through the air onto the car and suffered a concussion, a lacerated left arm, a broken left arm, three crushed vertebrae, six rib fractures, a lacerated spleen, and damage to his right optic nerve, leaving him legally blind in his right eye. He was hospitalized two and a half months, and in physical therapy for 6.5 months, and stilt suffers pain and disability.
“I can no longer drive due to the traumatic brain injury I suffered,” he says.
There have been several high-profile accidents in West Michigan, including the 2016 death of five cyclists due to an impaired truck driver and a two-car one-bicyclist incident earlier this year in Holland.
There is reason to believe that bicycle travel will increase due to avoiding pollution and high gas prices, as well as the search for greater fitness. So, RofS advocates for greater car-driver awareness and fair treatment under the law. As the website, www.rideofsilence.org, puts it, “The Ride of Silence will not be quiet,” adding, “Although cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, the motoring public often isn't aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.”
There will be another RofS Tribute Ride in Montague on August 12-13. It will coincide with the One Day Ride Across Michigan (ODRAM), and honor cyclist Susan Cummings who was killed during the 2015 ODRAM.
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