Две аварии с велосипедистами в Индианаполисе усиливают опасения по поводу безопасности зон строительства

Indy Bike Crashes Raise Construction Zone Safety Concerns INDIANAPOLIS — Two serious crashes involving cyclists just hours apart Monday morning are raising concerns about safety around construction zones in Indianapolis. One of those crashes killed a 44-year-old man in downtown Indianapolis, while another left a bicyclist critically injured on the near northwest side of the city. Andrew Riley regularly commutes downtown by bicycle and knows the area well, along with the dangers cyclists can face. “I live on the east side, and I commute downtown every day on my bike,” Riley said. One area that concerns Riley is the intersection of Washington Street and Capitol Avenue, which has been surrounded by construction. “This intersection’s been under construction all year at various corners,” Riley said. “They’ve put up construction over this crosswalk. They had it blocked off. The crosswalk on the other side has been blocked off all year, so there were times where you couldn’t even cross either way without going into the street.” Around 3:05 a.m. Monday, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to that intersection for a crash involving a Dodge Ram pickup truck and an e-bike. Police said the pickup was moving southbound on Capitol Avenue when its driver struck the e-bike rider, who was heading westbound on Washington Street. The rider died at the scene. The Marion County Coroner’s Office identified him as 44-year-old Brandon Eugene Rogers Sr. The pickup driver remained at the scene and cooperated with detectives. Police said it was unknown if alcohol was a factor in the crash. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. It is unclear if the nearby road work played any role in the crash, but cyclists said the construction has made navigating the area more dangerous. They specifically pointed to fencing and black tarping that can create a blind spot for drivers and cyclists. “I mean, it could have been nobody’s fault, right?” Riley said. “If somebody was just making a yellow across there in the intersection, the person going southbound wouldn’t even see them until they’re right in front of them.” Just a few hours later, IMPD responded to another serious crash involving a cyclist. Officers were dispatched around 5:50 a.m. to Indiana Avenue and Waterway Boulevard on the near northwest side. Police said a passenger vehicle struck a bicyclist, leaving the bicyclist critically injured. The driver remained at the scene. That crash happened near the 16 Tech area, where there is also ongoing construction. “There are best practices from other places for construction,” said Anthony Cherolis, Executive Director of Central Indiana Cycling. “We wish that there were more uniformly in place here in Indy.” Cherolis said he was disturbed to see the two crashes Monday morning. As a member of the city’s Fatal Crash Review Team, Cherolis said speeding and running traffic lights are among the biggest contributors to fatal crashes. He said slowing down and paying attention is especially important around construction. “That’s an extremely important time to be paying as much attention as you should be all the time, but that’s an even more important situation is in those construction zones,” Cherolis said. For Riley, construction is an unavoidable part of travelling through the city. He believes the focus should be on making sure those construction areas can still be safely navigated. “We’re going to have construction downtown always, right? That’s going to be the history of Indianapolis and any big city,” Riley said. “How do we set up construction and make sure the contractors are setting it up safely so that people can still get around? Because right now, it’s not. Not at all.”