Jeff Cagle
i am a freelance news and editorial photographer living in the chicago suburbs.
my portfolio is at jeffcagle.com. You can also find me at instagram.com/jeffcagle
get in touch: jeffrey [dot] cagle [at] gmail
Ask me anything
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I don’t know who was responsible for designing yesterday’s course, but on one of the turns sat two manhole covers and the circled indentation. All three were right in the cyclists’ line rounding the corner. One of the masters riders slipped on a manhole cover and went crashing into the metal barriers at the curb, breaking his femur. Let me tell you, the sight of a bone bulging out of someone’s thigh held in only by some skin-tight lyra is something I never want to see again.
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Why was this man driving at age 86?
I don’t want it to be February, the 25th of any month, the Wednesday of any week, her birthday or Mother’s Day. Most definitely, I do not want it to be March 24. A year ago today, one month from her 18th birthday, my daughter was killed; she was on a bike trip with friends in southern Illinois during their spring break from their senior year in high school.
I am asked repeatedly how I am doing. My inner response is, “How do you think I am doing?”I posted a few times last year about Faith Dremmer after she was killed and her two friends seriously injured when they were run down by an 86-year-old man who fell asleep at the wheel. It’s hard to read about how much pain Michele Dremmer is still experiencing from the loss of her only child.
I still doubt there are many politicians with balls enough to tackle an issue like taking away driving
rightsprivileges for the elderly, but whoever is willing to take on that fight will have a grieving mother who can paint one hell of a vivid picture of what she doesn’t want anyone else to go through. -
Cyclist, cops seek hit-run driver
Brian Van spent the better parts of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Edward Hospital in Naperville, undergoing treatment for three bone fractures that have left him dependent on a walker and crutches for his mobility.
Van and his wife, Robin, were visiting relatives in Naperville the week before Christmas. Van decided to get some exercise by taking his black-colored, 18-speed standard bicycle out for a ride about 10:30 a.m. Christmas Eve in the city’s West Highlands neighborhood.
The bike was outfitted with two strobe lights, and a third light blinked on and off from Van’s helmet. Van said he was riding east on Gartner Road and approaching Washington Street when he encountered a backed-up line of four or five vehicles.
“I was in the right-hand through lane when the light changed” from red to green, Van said. He began accelerating but stayed behind a sport utility vehicle before attempting to cross Washington Street.
“All of a sudden, I’m hit from the left-hand side” by the driver of a car that was third in line, Van said. The impact caused him to land “on my feet in a sort of squatting position, and then my (right) leg buckled under me.”
“When I first rolled up to the line of traffic, I made brief eye contact with the driver,” Van said. He described the motorist as a white-haired man who appeared to be about 60 years old and who was traveling alone.
This is quite the sketchy intersection, but it’s one the City of Naperville has marked as a designated bike route. And the way the neighborhoods are set up, you’d have to detour by nearly a mile in either direction to cross Washington with a light.
What’s truly infuriating, though, is that it sounds like Brian Van was going above and beyond with his efforts to be visible by wearing strobes in broad daylight, yet someone else’s carelessness nearly cost him his life. And then they left him there like an animal.
I hope whoever hit Van is losing a lot of sleep over their actions, as they should. Naperville showed last year that it aggressively prosecutes those who injure or attempt to injure cyclists with the conviction and jail sentence of Mary Rehm for attempting to run down a teenager on his bike in the downtown area. The penalty for fleeing the scene of an accident with injuries should result in a significantly stiffer sentence.
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Dashcam Captures Crash Victim's Bike Theft
Mike Hardy will never forget his 27th birthday. But for all the wrong reasons.
First, a car struck him as he was riding his bike to his girlfriend’s house. And police say thieves stole the bike worth $1,200 as he laid on the ground being tended by paramedics and firefighters. […]
As Hardy laid in the street, his bike was taken to the side of the street. He said he tried to keep an eye on it while the firefighters and paramedics [worked on him].
That’s when thieves nonchalantly tested the bike to ensure it worked and then took off with it. These were the same men who had checked on Hardy immediately after the crash.
Words escape me.
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Cops say bicyclist OK thanks to helmet
A bicyclist’s use of a helmet likely saved him from serious injury or death after he was struck by a car on Naperville’s far southwest side, police said Wednesday.
The 52-year-old Naperville man spent the night in a hospital and lost his Felt bicycle, but otherwise survived the crash in remarkably good condition, Naperville police Cmdr. Mike Anders said.
Anders said the crash occurred at 6:31 p.m. Monday as the cyclist was riding east on 103rd Street and approaching Helene Avenue. That is near the city’s Tall Grass neighborhood and east of the unincorporated Anderman Acres area.
The bicycle was struck by a 2009 Chevrolet Impala driven by Robert Ryan, 68, of Naperville, Anders said. Ryan was driving west on 103rd Street and turning left onto southbound Helene Avenue when he hit the cyclist and knocked him to the pavement, Anders said.
This is along one of my favorite routes, but I stopped riding it during rush hour for just this reason. This is one of the scariest sections of any route I ride, and this was bound to happen, especially with the position of the sun right now at that time.
Perfect example of the importance of a helmet, though. Wear your buckets.
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Bicyclist dies after hitting vehicle in Rogers Park
A bicyclist died this afternoon after running through a stop sign and striking a vehicle this morning in the Far North Side’s Rogers Park community, according to Chicago police.
The crash happened about 9:45 a.m. in the 2000 block of West Farwell Avenue, police said.
The cyclist, a 69-year-old man, was westbound on Farwell when riding through a stop sign at Ridge Boulevard, striking the vehicle, said Chicago Police Officer Veejay Zala, a police spokesman. He said the victim then fell from the bicycle onto the pavement.
No citations have been issued against the driver of the vehicle that was hit as of this afternoon.
Condolences to the deceased, but the thing I don’t understand about this story is how combative the comments are getting. Most of these threads turn into a bikes vs cars argument, but simply stated, this is a perfect illustration of how you’re gambling with your life when you take risks and ignore the rules of the road when you’re on a bike. But it also shows that a cyclist’s carelessness usually only ends up in the cyclist being injured/killed in a bike vs. car/truck/bus collision.
This guy rolled the dice and paid the ultimate price and people are flipping out about it in the comments. Meanwhile, two days ago a cyclist was run down and killed in a hit-and-run and it’s generated nary a peep. I just don’t get it.
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First case for Illinois’ new bicycle safety law?
bnf:
So…Brian just texted me. He got hit by a car. Nothing is broken but he wasn’t wearing his helmet either. All I know is he’s at some hospital and his bike is at some firehouse in the city. Ugh.
I hate how common it is to know someone that’s been hit while riding. This city seems so segregated when it comes to car vs bikes. Where are the public service announcements on bus shelters reminding people to share the road? People yell at you even when you’re riding in a bike lane. We need a giant traveling billboard informing people that we cannot ride on sidewalks by law. Road signs caution drivers when deer are common on certain country roads. Why not the same in the city for roads known for heavy bike traffic?
While I’m sure he’d rather not be in this position, your friend might be the first case to see what happens now that Governor Quinn signed a new law the other day (effective immediately) that would make this a felony case if your friend is hurt badly. I assume if he is texting he is likely OK and just went to get checked out, but the beauty about legal speak is that it can be bent so that what constitutes “great bodily harm” is rather generous. At the very least, this driver will be slapped with a Class A misdemeanor.
And, like I said the other day, the law doesn’t make the roads any safer, but it at least gives us cyclists some sort of recourse knowing that drivers that injure us won’t be walking away scot-free anymore.
But, most importantly, get well soon, Brian.
