It’s been a bad two days for Southern California bike riders.
According to the Orange County Register, a woman was killed as she was riding her bike in a crosswalk in the city of Orange Sunday evening.
The unidentified victim was crossing the street at the intersection of West Chapman Avenue and North Flower Street shortly after 6 pm when she was struck by a man driving a full-size pickup. She was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she passed away nearly 45 minutes later.
The paper reports the driver cooperated with investigators, and was sober at the time of the collision.
There’s no word on who had the right-of-way or which street the victim was crossing, or what direction the truck was traveling. A satellite view shows a two-lane street with a left turn lane on Fowler and six lanes with a left turn lane on Chapman, with crosswalks in each direction.
This is the 54th bicycling fatality in Southern California, and the 13th in Orange County. It’s also the third SoCal bicycling death in less than 22 hours.
Update: Comments from Bill Sellin identify her as Kathleen “Kat” Walker, a homeless woman who lived in the nearby Santa Ana river bed.
He goes on to explain that as she rode in the crosswalk against traffic, she would not have had enough time to make it across all seven lanes if she didn’t push the button for the pedestrian crossing signal. In addition, the sun would have been facing the oncoming traffic close to sunset, making her difficult to see.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Kathleen Walker and her family.
