Lately on facebook people have been mourning for other bicyclists who were killed by cars. One time Moya posted a link to a news article about a kid that was killed on the way to school one morning. Another time it was a young woman that a lot of people downtown knew who was done in by a truck that fell over while turning. The most recent one had in the article that "San Jose has already set a new record for the number of bicyclists and pedestrians killed in car related accidents this year." Justin feels that we need to do something about it. The first thing they came up with was a ghost bike ride for the fallen. It started at Oak & Vine, where a young kid had been killed by a car.

     

  

That pink poster must have been made by his mother. Isaul talked about being a couple of blocks away when it happened. He said the neighborhood is always a bit rough, but nobody wants to take out a little kid. He'd heard the fire department and ambulance but had stayed clear. It wasn't long before there were a number of people there with the ghost bike ready to ride south in memory of Anthony Garcia.

  

Many of the riders were relatives and friends of the deceased.

  

It wasn't long before we were ready to roll south. It was only five or six miles, but some of the family weren't used to riding that kind of distance. Took a bit of regrouping along the way to get us all through all the lights, but it worked out.

  

In addition to the candles there was some graffiti on the traffic light pole, the gist of which was that Anthony had died here. There was considerable discussion about where to put the ghost bike. We didn't want to impede traffic with it, and we wanted people to see it. In the end they decided to mount it on the traffic light.

   

  

I'm told it was attached to the stoplight with a U lock. Hopefully that will keep it up there for a while. The family feels a real need to spread the message "be careful out there!"

        

Anthony's sister gave a blow by blow account of how she heard about it in a phone call not long after the accident. They got him to the hospital alive, but a couple of days later they figured out that it was hopeless and he died.

The poet gave me a sense that Anthony is one with the earth and sky now.

Anthony's brother was kind enough to let me take a picture of his shirt.

Justin said that we are planning to do a big die in to dramatize the issue. He invited everybody to follow the developments on facebook as we put it together.

     

It was cold by the time we headed out. I joined the group that took the VTA light rail. We talked as it rolled north. The experienced cyclists would have been warmer riding faster, but that wasn't an option for Anthony's family. The trailer that had carried the ghost bike was an awesome design, light and strong!