By Liam Ford and Rosemary Regina Sobol
The Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A Chicago Fire Department lieutenant has died weeks after he was hit by a car while riding a bicycle from his firehouse, at least the 12th cyclist killed in Cook County this year, authorities said.
Lt. Danny Carbol, 56, was injured Sept. 20 in a crash in suburban Evergreen Park while he was biking home after his shift, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m. Monday. He was at least the 12th bicyclist killed this year in Cook County, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
An autopsy determined Carbol, of the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, died of multiple injuries after being hit by an automobile.
In the crash, Carbol was issued a citation for failing to obey traffic laws after he neglected to stop at a stop sign and was hit by a car that was already in an intersection, according to a police report and court records.
A witness told police that the Jeep Grand Cherokee that hit Carbol had stopped at a four-way stop while heading east on 93rd Street, then started through the intersection, while Carbol had failed to stop at a stop sign while heading south on Central Park Avenue, according to the police report. The 33-year-old Chicago woman who was driving the Jeep told police she hadn’t seen Carbol and was in the intersection when he hit the side of her SUV.
The witness, who was in a car behind the Jeep, said “it appeared he was assuming that the (Jeep) was going to stop for him,” according to the report. Instead, the bicycle hit the side of the Jeep, Carbol flew off the bike, hit the Jeep’s hood and fell to the ground.
When police arrived, they found Carbol on the ground, with his bike next to him, bleeding and unresponsive, according to the report.
After the crash, the police officer tasked with writing the report went to Advocate Christ Medical Center to check on Carbol’s condition and try to give him a copy of the citation, according to the report. Carbol was not able to sign the citation, so he was given a personal recognizance bond, and the citation was mailed to his house, according to the report.
Other deaths this year of bicyclists in Cook County include six people killed in Chicago, the same as the average number of bicycling deaths each year in the city, and five others killed in the suburbs. Those killed include:
In September, bicyclist Anastasia Kondrasheva was struck and killed by a truck in Roscoe Village. She was a recent graduate of Loyola University Chicago who worked as a health coach at a North Side center. Kondrasheva, 23, was hit by a flatbed truck that was turning onto Addison Street from Damen Avenue during rush hour Sept 26, according to police.
Northwestern University freshman Chuyuan Qui, 18, was killed Sept. 22 when she apparently was hit by a truck that had a green light.
Nicholas Fox, 53, was riding a bicycle when he was hit by train in the 5900 block of South Narragansett Avenue on June 26. Fox died Sept. 25 from complications of multiple injuries from being struck by a train and his death was a ruled an accident, according to the medical examiner’s office.
On Aug. 17, Francisco Cruz, 58, was struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. A white cargo van hit Cruz in the 4000 block of West Maypole Avenue and then fled the scene. This was the only nighttime fatality.
Lisa Kuivinen, a 20-year-old student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was riding south in the 800 block of North Milwaukee Avenue on Aug. 16 near a construction site when a semitrailer crossed into the bike lane and struck her bike, killing her, police said.
Virginia Murray, 25, who was riding a Divvy bike when she was struck by a flatbed truck near Sacramento and Belmont avenues in the Avondale neighborhood July 1. She is believed to be the first person killed while riding a bike-sharing bicycle in the United States.
Blaine Klingenberg, 29, a bike messenger, was struck and killed by a tour bus on the Gold Coast on June 15. He was a few hundred yards from Oak Street Beach when he was hit by a double-decker bus at Oak Street and Michigan Avenue, according to police.
On June 3, Brian Schrader, of Burbank, 13, was hit by a truck and killed in an accident at 87th Street and Latrobe Avenue in Burbank.
Dagoberto Huizar, 51, was bicycling on Mannheim Road just north of Schiller Boulevard on April 23 when he was struck by a vehicle.
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