Ten Minutes
“A tragedy,” you hear on the news but when you see real grief it’s almost impossible to process. You look away from the mother alone in her pain. She lost her son doing the simplest thing – riding an electric scooter in Washington, DC.
And here she was, days after his death, on the spot where he was killed, as cars honked and drivers cursed.
This was the scene at the memorial ride for Carlos Sanchez-Martin, who was run over by an SUV in a Dupont Circle crosswalk. A white ghost scooter was erected to memorialize him, placed at the spot where he died. We then occupied the street for ten minutes, placing our bikes and our bodies on the asphalt.
Drivers couldn’t wait ten minutes. Someone died here and they couldn’t wait ten minutes. They honked and honked and a couple even got out of their cars to confront us, a situation thankfully defused by the DC police.
Ten minutes. Drivers won’t even give ten minutes for someone that they killed. That tells you everything you need to know about car culture.
After the ten minutes were up, we left the intersection. Drivers poured through, running red lights and nearly hitting people in the crosswalk where Carlos Sanchez-Martin was killed. And this was despite the presence of police.
Rachel Maisler organized the memorial ride. It has become her sad duty to coordinate these events, having brought mourners together for cyclist deaths on H Street and M Street.
And there will be another one, for Thomas A. Hollowell, who was hit by a red-light runner at 12th and Constitution, just off the National Mall.
If you’re murdered by a gun in this city, the police flood the neighborhood. Lights are put up. Squad cars are posted on corners to reassure people that they’re safe.
Someone died at the intersection and drivers still run red lights here. This is what failure looks like @DDOTDC @MayorBowser #VisionZero #bikeDC pic.twitter.com/czoJqiPOVP
— Joe Flood (@joeflood) September 25, 2018
But if you’re a murdered by a car, nothing is done. I visited 12th and Pennsylvania the day after Hollowell’s death and cars were still running red lights. A more enlightened city would make immediate changes to the intersection to make it safer and crackdown on red light runners.
But not Mayor Bowser and the District Department of Transportation. I don’t know their priorities are but it’s not keeping people safe.
Follow Rachel Maisler if you want to participate in the next memorial ride. These are grassroots events, sponsored by nobody but the participants. While there’s an alphabet soup of transportation advocacy groups and government agencies in this town, they have done so little that ordinary folks (like me) are forced to take to the streets before we become the latest victim of out-of-control drivers.
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