Distracted Driver Kills One Bicyclist and Injures Another Near Champaign, Illinois

Update: March 9, 2011 - Some have questioned how a disabled man and his blind wife could ride a tandem bicycle.  Well, here is a photo of David and Cindy Combs doing just that quite well  several years ago:

                                           Courtesy Urbana-Champaign Cycling Ventures
Update:  2:24 p.m. -   A friend of Mr. and Mrs. Combs has shared some additional details about them.  They were no ordinary couple.  "David is disabled; Cindy was blind. Their bike was their freedom," said SiouxGeonz, who apparently met Cindy Combs through a singing group.  Despite their disabilities they were passionate about cycling and rode just about everywhere.  "David is disabled and doesn't drive.  I remember one day when he told me that Cindy had screamed on their way to the ride... because she was so glad to be going on a ride with us," SiouxGeonz wrote in a comment made on this blog.  (Click on the Comment link below the main post to read more.)

Main Post - A 53 year old woman was killed and her husband, 51, was seriously injured when they were struck from behind by a motorist as they rode their tandem bicycle in rural Champaign County yesterday.  Cindy C. Combs and David Combs were riding south on County Road E., just north of 1800 North near Bondville, at around 4:30 p.m. when they were hit from behind by a driver who "may have been distracted by reading a map," according to the Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette.  The driver was identified as 31 year old Errol T. Maul, 31, of nearby Tolono, IL.

Mrs. Combs was pronounced dead at the scene.  Her husband is in critical condition at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.

Illinois Approves Design For "Share The Road" License Plates

A great way to remind drivers that bicyclists have the same rights to the road as cars is to advertise that fact on your own vehicle.  The design of Illinois' new "Share The Road" license plate has been approved and the Secretary of State is now taking orders.  If you read this blog and live in Illinois get one.  Do it!  This is an inexpensive way to send an important message to drivers that bikes belong (on the road, not the sidewalk), and to re-enforce that we are traffic.

Click here to get the short order form.  Fill it out and send in your seventeen bucks.  Once the Secretary of State gets 1500 requests, production will start and the plates will go out.  If every Illinois resident who reads this blog orders a plate production will begin very shortly. 

Sixteen Year Old Riding Bicycle to See His Mother Struck And Killed By Driver Fleeing Police

A 16 year old boy was killed last night when a vehicle fleeing from police struck him while he rode his bicycle at the intersection of 154th Street and Greenwood Avenue in Dolton, Illinois.  Following the incident Kenyatta Brack, who lived not far from the scene, was taken to St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Center in Hammond where he was pronounced dead at 10:16 p.m.  According to Kenyatta's father, he was riding alone at the time, and was on his way to see his mother.  It is not clear how close police officers in pursuit of the driver were to the scene at the time of the collision.  They are still looking for the driver.

This matter was reported by The Chicago Breaking News Center.