A few thoughts on the cyclist fatality this morning
I am still not finding much about this awful incident. If you are, please email me the information and relevant links.
The thing that leaves such a horrible pit in my stomach here is not that the young driver fled — I don’t condone it but I can kind of see the flight instinct kicking in here — but that this was a case of a young driver being hasty and trying to drive around a car that was going too slow for his tastes.
It appears that he moved to pass a car on the right and overshot the curb lane, drifted into the bike lane and struck this man. All to gain a few seconds against the car in front of him.
Charles Nystrom was killed in very similar circumstances. A young driver swerved around a car in front of her that just happened to be slowing down because a bicyclist was merging into the turn lane. The young driver hit Charles and changed the lives of a family forever — he is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a young grandson.
I wonder what family is getting the same devastating news tonight.
If you pray, issue a prayer for them tonight.
Update: the cyclist’s name was Drake G. Okusako.
–Erik Ryberg
May 29th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
I was very upset to hear about this accident. I felt the same pain in my arms that I felt when Chuck was killed. Our family will be praying.
May 29th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
He was my son’s soccer coach a few years ago. Nice guy. Total soccer nut and as dedicated a bike rider as they come. I don’t think he owned a car and we always saw him on the roads riding his bike everywhere, including all over town to the soccer matches the kids he coached played in. I don’t think he had family in Tucson, but I may be wrong.
This is the second time I’ve been on this website remembering someone I knew who got mowed down on a bike (RIP to Kevin too). When does it ever stop?
I live three blocks away and as I drove by the roped off area this morning, I asked one of the cops if it had been a child. She said “No”. My own kids didn’t have tennis camp today, but are often in that area at that time of day.
It didn’t have anything to do with today’s tragedy, but that entrance to the Randolph Park Tennis and Recreation Centers and skate park(just south of Broadway on Alvernon),is THE MOST DANGEROUS exchange in all of Tucson and I hope that Coach Oke’s death there can alert people to the extreme danger of having a walking path, roadways, bikers, skaters, walkers, dogs, kids and cars all intersecting without much of anything in the way of warning signs or other deterrents. It’s only a matter of time before others die there too.
He was a decent man and will be missed. Rest in Peace, Drake Okusako. – Stephanie Jackter