Sadly, we now have confirmation of the bicycling fatality in West LA last week.
As we reported last week, Howard Valai forwarded Nextdoor post reporting that a bicyclist was hit by a driver on Barrington Ave somewhere between Olympic and Pico Boulevards around 10 pm on Monday, December 9th.
He also found a report on the Citizen app showed police investigating a fatal collision at Barrington and Exposition around the same time.
Various reports suggested the victim may have been homeless, but there was no official confirmation of the death or any description of a possible victim.
However, another post by the woman who first reported the crash post again to say she’d spoken with residents of a nearby homeless camp, who confirmed that a homeless man named Craig was killed in the collision.
That provided Valai with enough information to check the county medical examiner’s website, where he found the following record.
Separately none of these were enough to confirm the death. But together, they confirm that a 68-year old homeless man named Craig Feldman died when he was struck by a driver’s vehicle that Monday night.
What’s missing is any word on how the crash occurred, or why. Or whether any action was taken against the driver.
Sadly, there was no mention of this crash in the local media.
Then again, the death of a homeless person seldom makes the news. Yet no life should be less important than any other; no death shouldn’t matter.
Hopefully we can find out more soon.
And hopefully, Craig Feldman will be remembered as more than just a name on the medical examiner’s website.
This is at least the 74th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 33rd that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; Feldman’s death is also the 17th in the City of Los Angeles since the first of the year.
And the seventh SoCal bike death in less than ten days.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Craig Feldman and all his loved ones.
Thanks to Howard Valai for his help in tracking down the information for this post.
