Today, we gather in honor of those killed on New York City streets.
This past year, more than 100 pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles.
On average, one pedestrian is killed every other day in New York City, and at least
23 cyclists have been killed in 2007.
The vital memorials are crucial to keeping these people in our memories, and in our hearts, and making us do everything we can that these crashes stop.
We're here to remember Franco Sorcio.
He was riding his bike turning the corner here when a charter bus turning the corner here did not look for him, did not take the one second it took to look to see if the way was clear for pedestrians and cyclists, and he was smashed into right here and instantly killed.
We have some members of the family here today.
My dad was very safety oriented, so this demonstrates that even with all the precautions one can take, that it takes an awareness from the public, and that's what this is about, and that's what I'd like to address.
Take advantage of this opportunity to thank everybody involved. I know it's been meaningful to him, and it's certainly meaningful to us. It helps us feel that there may be a recent point or something we can gain from this.
We can save some more lives with the awareness that we can generate from our lives, but I think there's something we've gotten out of it.
David, brother, bicycle every day, bare weather and foul water, and he's a very careful rider. He always tells me to watch out for opening doors.
When we're in the car, he always says, look, I'm sure you're not open.
Today we're here to honor Craig Murphy. The first thing I'd like to recognize is that this bike was actually put together by Craig's friends using one of his old bikes.
So that was something that they organized themselves, and we found that really remarkable, so we'd really like to recognize that and thank them for doing that.
Though Craig was only 26, I know that he did a lot in his short life. He worked at the West Harlem Action Network Against Poverty, where he managed a hunger prevention program and organized a local neighborhood CSA.
He also volunteered with Right Rides for Women's Safety, where he founded and organized the Safe Work program in 2006. That program involved an on-call bike patrol who would escort people home.
I also learned reading about him that he was very well loved by his many, many friends and that he was very involved in this community right here.
Craig was riding home early on the morning of October 18th. He had just dropped off a friend at her home. He had just ridden her home.
On this street, he was struck by a turning truck right here on Union Avenue. We won't ever know what happened that night because as far as we know, the only surviving witness is the driver of the truck.
I had the pleasure of meeting Craig in a meeting. He was trying to organize Right Rides and I really wanted to help him and he's one of the coolest people I've met in Williamsbury.
He was an amazing person and I'm really sad for all his friends that don't have him around because I only knew him for one meeting and from passing him on the streets and high-five, hey, what's up, on the bridge occasionally.
He was a cool dude and this world lost an amazing, amazing person and every ghost bike we make is made with a lot of love but especially one of the reasons why I do this is because every time I hear a biker that's been hit, I wonder if it's one of my friends.
Right now we're at the base of the Manhattan Bridge to honor and remember Sam Hindi. Sam died because he could not find his way because the conditions at one of the most important bike connectors in New York City is simply not safe enough.
Sam's death is an unimaginable loss to his family and to his friends. It is also a loss to our cycling community and to our city.
We're really lucky to have Sam's family here today, his mother Ellen, his father Steve, his sister Lily, his Aunt Caroline.
Sam had a great love of anything on wheels. He loved rollerblading, he loved skateboarding, he loved bicycling and he loved his car. But after moving back to New York from Boston earlier this year, Sam decided to sell his car.
He was committed to going green and he was very into the work of transportation alternatives, the ghost bike project and critical mass.
He rode in memorial rides like this one today and he tried to get me to join him in critical mass rides.
Sam's preventable death has made us all see the importance of the work of transportation alternatives.
America's in love with the internal combustion engine, but cars, trucks and buses are killing and maiming pedestrians and bicyclists in New York City virtually every day.
They are choking the street life of our city. Our thirst for fossil fuels is forcing us into horrible foreign adventures like the Iraq war and it is destroying the atmosphere that enables our little planet to breathe.
Something is wrong when cars, trucks and buses are driving the people. I hope you will join our family, Sam and transportation alternatives in their struggle to ensure safe streets for pedestrians and bicyclists and cars, trucks and buses. Thank you very much.
You need two minutes for the thing.
I know right?
You need it!
Ah, yo!
We are riding in honor of Anthony Delgado, Jeffrey Moore, Mark Franceschi, Juan Solis, Luis Ramos, Carolina Hernandez, Elijah Rancher, Abien Rodriguez, Craig Murphy,
Sam Hindi, David Smith, Franco Scorcia, 11 unnamed riders and the countless pedestrians who says go unrecognized and unrecognized.
We ride with love in our hearts, with sadness for what has been lost, with the rage that these crashes didn't have to happen and hope that we never have to do this again.
With these ghost bikes and memorials, we want to raise awareness about a bicyclist right to the street and pedestrians right to safe passage in the hopes that New Yorkers can change the climate on the road and learn to respect each other.
