Brian “Buzz” Climis was one of 35,000 people killed on U.S. roadways in 2015. Fifty five years old, Climis was a cyclist who commuted 14 miles a day from his home in Ansonia, Connecticut to his job in Shelton. Two days before Christmas, at around 7:30 on his morning commute, he was struck by a hit and run driver, who managed to evade police for almost nine months. The Ghost Bike shown above was placed as a memorial near the spot where Buzz was struck, just as hundreds of other bikes have been painted white and left as another reminder of cyclists killed on the nations roads.

     Climis had been commuting by bike for years. In fact, his was the face of the Connecticut Post’s front-page article on national Bike to Work Day in 2007. Media outlets and various agencies and levels of government have encouraged commuters to bike to work, while giving short shrift to creating bike lanes and safe spaces for bikers.

     Connecticut does have a “3 Feet, It’s the Law” program that has begun to show up in signs along Shelton roads. But bike lanes are few and far between, and the number of distracted drivers on the roads appears to be rising rapidly. At 7:30 in the morning on December 23, 2015, the weather was clear and visibility was good. So how does an experienced bike rider get struck and killed by driver Ryder Kingsley, who nine months later police charged with negligent homicide and evading responsibility?  Distracted driving certainly is suggested.

     At recent organized bike rides that I have done, personal injury law firms offer freebie water bottles with their email addresses and phone numbers. This is a sad comment, not on the law firms involved but on the lack of commitment to the bike-friendly attitudes that local, state and federal governments profess to hold.

     I had an odd connection to Buzz Climas. While my beard was but a whisker of his, from time to time I would be mistaken for him on the road. On the very day when a photo of Buzz graced the front page of the Connecticut Post, I was also pedaling my bike to celebrate Bike to Work Day 2007. As I prepared to cross the heavy Route 110 traffic, a driver entering the Sikorsky parking lot rolled down his window to encourage me, saying he had seen my picture (actually Buzz’s) in that morning’s Post. This was definitely not the time or the place to correct him. That small accolade, of course, was due Buzz, not me, a less ambitious cyclist. Buzz deserved better.