Saturday’s Memorial Bicycle Ride On Strip At Sunrise Has Message For Motorists: Stop Killing Bicyclists
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
There was an impressive number of bicyclists who braved freezing temperatures to pedal along the Las Vegas Strip shortly after sunrise Saturday morning to remember the lives of five cyclists killed by a truck driver on meth south of Boulder City a year ago.
Organizer Pat Treichel and the Ghost Bikes Las Vegas group hope they can change the way people drive their cars to lower the number of bicyclists struck, killed or injured by motorists who drive too fast and are impaired. The memorial bicycle ride created public awareness to dangers and safety issues on our public roadways .
A church parking lot about a quarter-mile east of Las Vegas Boulevard was a staging area for this bike ride. By the looks of the crowd, there were some 300-400 cyclists gathered. Most were on road bicycles. But there were also people pedaling mountain bikes and some cruisers, too.
The “TEAMG Anniversary Memorial Ride,” an eight-mile ride from the Luxor to Wynn and back on the Strip, was a time to remember Tom Trauger, Erin Ray, Aksoy, Mike Murray and Gerrard Nieva, the cyclists killed between Boulder City and Searchlight Dec. 10, 2020 on a two-state bike ride.
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In his pre-ride remarks to the gathered bicyclists, Treichel said their names and the names of other bicyclists who have been killed by motorists in recent years.
Treichel advised the bicyclists to follow road rules. The bicyclists can only hope that operators of motorized vehicles do the same.
In 2020, 314 traffic fatalities took place in the state of Nevada.
And with 20 days left in 2021, there have been more traffic deaths in any year since 2007 with more than 350.
