Head-on bike collision on Denver’s Cherry Creek Trail renews talk about speed and safety

Fellow cyclists stopped and performed CPR

Photo by Andrew Kenney/The Denver Post

From The Denver Post
By Andrew Kenney

A bicyclist is in critical condition and riders across Denver are talking about safety on the Cherry Creek Trail after a high-speed, head-on crash there Tuesday evening.

Multiple witnesses said that a young woman cyclist crossed the dividing line of the two-way cycling trail, putting her in the path of an oncoming male cyclist at full speed.

The collision was so severe that the man had no pulse and wasn’t breathing after the crash, according to a physician assistant who had been riding on the trail and stopped. The crash victim regained his pulse and resumed breathing but remained unconscious after the physician assistant, who declined to be identified, and another civilian performed CPR.

The male cyclist, William Latimer of Westminster, was in critical condition at Denver Health on Wednesday, according to his brother, Walter Latimer. The identity and condition of the female cyclist was unknown as of Wednesday.

On most days Cherry Creek is a mix of speedy athletes, casual riders and pedestrians — a situation that one cyclist called the Interstate 25 of bicycles.

In recent weeks, city rangers have used radar guns to enforce the 15-mph speed limit on the two-lane path, part of a safety campaign that rankled some of the path’s users. On Tuesday night, though, that message had terrible resonance.

Read the full article here

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Comments

6 Comments

  1. Pamela

    It is the responsibility of all users to abide by the rules of “the road” whether that be a multi use path, bike path or road. That includes traveling no faster than the speed limit and passing only when it’s safe to do so. That being said, the reality is that a horrible incident occurred leaving one party in critical condition. I’m sad for this and for the long journey to recovery that he must now endure.

  2. Paul

    I agree with Pamela. Blissful ignorance won’t cut it on a busy bike path. It is up to the path user to be courteous, proactive and sensible. With that being said it sounds like the path has become outdated in it’s design and can’t support the volume of traffic.

  3. Mike Shonstrom

    Colorado has averaged 10 cyclist deaths, 700 motorists deaths and 1,000 deaths from opioid overdoses per year. Where do you put the emphasis? Despite the growth in population and cycling activity, the death rate for cyclists has not gone up appreciably. In addition, most cyclist fatalities involve
    automobiles. Whenever there is a story of a cyclist death from a hit and run driver, there isn’t a scramble to get the police to set up patrols to assure this doesn’t reoccur. While any preventable fatality is tragic and efforts should be made to encourage safe riding, sending Park Rangers out with radar guns to enforce a 15 mph speed limit is asinine. In my opinion, the police are for the most part ambivalent about the interests of cyclists.

  4. Scott

    The speed limit there is 15mph and posted. If a cyclist is going to travel at 25 to 30mph they need to use the street. This has been the law in Denver for many years.

  5. Shannon

    What does “full-speed” mean anyway? Granted, the Cherry Creek trail should not be used for serious training given the traffic, but I doubt the guy was in an all out 40mph sprint.

  6. Kevin

    Meanwhile on the road….. the carnage continues…. 200+ vulnerable road users (motorcycles, cyclists and pedestrians) killed yearly in Colorado at the hands of drivers encased in multi-ton killing machines; A large percentage of whom are drunk, high, texting, or otherwise distracted by their phones.

    Double that statistic to about 400+ if you want to count serious injuries, not just deaths.

    But yeah… let’s focus our attention and resources on cyclists speeding along the bike path. Because that’s what really keeps me wondering if I’ll make it home to my family from a ride or walk.

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