Too often, we never learn what happens after someone riding a bicycle is taken to the hospital.
If we ever hear about it in the first place.
That’s what nearly happened late last month, when a woman died days after she was struck by a driver while riding her bike in Lincoln Heights.
Make that a young mother, who leaves five young kids behind.
The first clue came with a post on Nextdoor, which Michael Shifflett forwarded to me this morning.
Unfortunately, there was no confirmation about the crash, let alone her death. And searching the LA County coroner’s office turned up nothing.
Because they misspelled her name.
According to information Shifflett was able to gather speaking with witnesses and members of her family, 31-year old Adriana Rodriguez, otherwise known as Fishy, was hit by a driver’s car at N. San Fernando Road and Humboldt Street on April 18th.
She was hospitalized for ten days afterwards, and died April 28th after being taken off life-support.
Her death was confirmed by the coroner’s office, which mistakenly spelled her first name as Andriana, which is why I couldn’t find it.
The driver stayed at the scene following the crash. No word on whether he or she was ticketed, but no arrest was made at the scene.
Unfortunately, no other information is available at this time.
However, a poignant, slightly truncated post from one of the first people on the scene following the crash captures the needless tragedy.
A GoFundMe campaign posted before Rodriguez’ death has raised a little more than $1,100 of the low $7,000 goal at the time of this writing.
Let’s see if we can boost that a little for those kids who will now grow up without a mother.
And yes, I gave, too.
This is at least the 25th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s the third I know of in the City of LA.
It’s also a reminder that too many stories like this never make the news. And we’ll never know how many other victim of traffic violence we may not have heard about.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Adriana Rodriguez and all her family.
Thanks to Michael Schifflett and Chris By Bike for the heads-up.
