BikinginLA

Word is just coming in that a bike rider was killed in a hit-and-run in the Florence neighborhood in South LA yesterday.

According to the Daily News, the 16-year old victim, whose name has not been released, was riding south on the 6700 block of Converse Ave when he was hit by an unidentified vehicle around 3:35 pm. The driver was reportedly speeding, and apparently hit the victim with the side of his car before fleeing.

The victim suffered major injuries, and died at a nearby hospital.

No other information is available at this time.

This is the 33rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 14th in the County of Los Angeles; that compares to nine in the county this time last year. He is also the 4th bike rider to die in the City of LA this year — two of which have been hit-and-runs.

Update: The victim has been identified as Adrian Chavez Jr.

Correction: Due to a database error, there was an error in the fatality totals in the initial version of this story. The last paragraph has been corrected to reflect the actual totals.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Adrian Chavez Jr and his family.

Thanks to Danny Gamboa for the heads-up.

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Note: As tragic as this case is, and as frightening as it is to read about things like this, let’s not forget that bicycling is a relatively safe activity. Your risk of suffering any kind of injury requiring medical attention on any given ride is just one in 77,000; the risk of death is only one in 6.3 million. And you are twice as likely to be killed in a motor vehicle as you are on a bike on an hourly basis.

So don’t let stories like this scare you off your bike. Let’s all focus on riding safely and defensively, and encouraging motorists to do the same so every bike rider can return home safely, every time.

And lets do whatever we can to get dangerous drivers off the streets and bring heartless cowards like this who leave their victims bleeding in the street to justice, and ensure they never drive again.