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Snohomish Sheriff’s deputies are investigating the death of a bicyclist in the Brier area after a collision with a pickup truck.
[Sept. 28 — The bicyclist has been identified as Christopher Wallace Alm of Redmond. Sheriff’s spokesperson Shari Ireton told the Everett Herald earlier in the week: “At this time, investigators believe that the bicyclist may have been traveling too fast to safely negotiate traffic and the curve in the road.”]
Few details are available in the death of a 24-year-old Lynnwood resident who died at the scene of the collision, near the intersection of Barker and Atlas roads. Emergency personnel attempted CPR on the cyclist, according to reports.
The driver of the pickup truck was a 43-year-old Mountlake Terrance man. A Sheriff’s department news release stated: “It is very early in the investigation but at this time it does not appear that alcohol was a factor in the collision.”
The crash happened at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Our condolences to the friends and family of the deceased.
More information at the Seatttle Times and Everett Herald.
1 comments
It was my unfortuante luck to have witnessed this accident, but it has motivated me to try to get the word out about cycling safely! I was riding behind this cyclist for about a .75 miles leading up to the accident. The cyclist was moving faster than my car through this neghborhood which has steep, shoulderless street and blind turns. He approached the intersection at atlas and barker going approximately 20 mph (it is marked 15 mph for cars). You can see from the map that this is a very sharp turn and I can tell you that you cannot see barker road as you approach. The cyclist, who was not wearing a helmut, lost control around the bend and cycled right into the oncoming lane into a big truck that tried to swerve a little into the severe dropoff that is the shoulder of northbound barker road at that location. It was not at all the motor vehicles fault. All of the news stories report it in a way that makes it seem that the truck driver was at fault, but I saw the accident (not the collision because of the blind turn, but the before and seconds after). The truck had nowhere to go. The cyclist was laying to the far east of the barker road, right in front of the truck, and I saw it seconds after it happened. The truck driver was beyond horrified as you can imagine.
Everyone please cycle very mindfully and safely!! Wear a helmet and take safety precautions on roads such as these or avoid them entirely! The friends and family of the cyclist and the man driving in the truck have been in my prayers since it happened. May everyone find the strength to get through this terrible tragedy.