'This loss of life is preventable': Denver hit-and-run victim memorialized with ghost bike

Ghost bikes are all-white bicycles that serve as roadside memorials in locations where cyclists have been killed, usually by drivers. The somber tradition began in the United States in the early 2000s and has since spread to more than 200 cities around the world.

[Related: I Build Ghost Bikes. Here’s What It’s Taught Me About Who Dies on a Bike]

The ghost bike at 13th and Syracuse is adorned with a helmet and cycling jersey of Steve’s, as well as white flowers on the rear tire rack.

“It’s great to have something out here that I can drive past, or ride past, and see it and say, 'Yeah, that was for him and he’s still here with me,’” Dan said. “And hopefully it means that people who come through this intersection will be jarred into remembering hey, there are real lives out there and I need to be careful.”

Dan hopes that the bike captures drivers’ attention and makes them realize the danger they pose to cyclists and pedestrians when they don’t follow the rules of the road.

Dan says that he drives in addition to cycling, but that when he’s in his car, he does not lose sight of the fact that he’s operating a “two or three ton missile that has the potential to do a lot of damage. If nothing else, [drivers should] put the phones down. Don’t eat while you’re driving, pay attention to the roads … I know we’re all in a hurry, but saving five or six seconds isn’t going to make that much difference, [but] it might save a life."

As for cyclists, Dan said he hopes the ghost bikes serves as a reminder that “unfortunately, you cannot count on the good will of drivers, even if you have the right-of-way like Steve did.”

Steve’s death is a tragedy made more devastating by the fact that he did everything right as a cyclist: he was in a bike lane, following traffic signals and biking at a slower pace through the intersection when the driver hit him. Steve even had a camera mounted to his bicycle that captured video of the killer’s Ford Explorer. Unfortunately, the car did not have a license plate.

Pete Piccolo, the executive director of Bicycle Colorado, was at Wednesday’s ceremony. “We’re here to shine a light on what is the preventable public health crisis that is traffic violence,” he said. “This loss of life is preventable.”

Denver experienced 84 traffic deaths in 2021, the highest number in at least a decade. Thirteen of those were hit-and-runs, a number the city has already eclipsed this year.

The Denver Police Department told Rocky Mountain PBS that so far in 2022, there have been 57 traffic fatalities in the city and 14 of those incidents involved a hit-and-run. According to Piccolo, Colorado is on track to record around 15-20 cyclist deaths this year. Below is a photo of the car that hit Steve.

[Related: More cyclists are being killed by cars. Advocates say U.S. streets are the problem]

“This killing has to stop,” Piccolo said, adding that Colorado does not lack the resources to make roads safer. Rather, he said, the state’s political leaders lack the compassion to do so.

Speaking about the street where Steve was killed, Piccolo suggested making East 13th Avenue a two-way street. Currently, the street is a wide two-lane, one-way road that Piccolo said invites people to speed due to the lack of stop signs and traffic calming measures like roundabouts or speed humps. He suggested making the road a two-way road in order to cull speeding and reckless driving.

“The governor is not going to listen to me, but he’ll listen to all of you,” Piccolo told the crowd at Steve’s ghost bike ceremony, encouraging them to advocate for safer streets.

The crowd included many cyclists who arrived via bike. Piccolo said he saw some “familiar faces” and Dan said he was both surprised and not surprised by the large number of people in attendance. Dan was surprised because the ceremony took place during a work day, but not surprised because Steve was, in Dan’s words, a “consummate great guy.”

“I know that sounds cliché, but he really was the kind of guy that would do just about anything for someone in need,” Dan said. “I’m not surprised that there were that many people available to be here because he was that guy — everybody who knew him loved him, and it doesn’t surprise me that they would want to say goodbye in a special circumstance like this.”