I’ve just returned from Kalamazoo Township Hall (where I serve as Trustee), where a news conference was just now held concerning the second mass tragedy our community has experienced this year. Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting (above, right) briefed the media and a small group of elected officials.
Tonight at about 6:30 pm a 50-year-old man driving a pick-up truck plowed into a group of nine bicyclists, killing five and seriously injuring four, who are at local hospitals. This was along a stretch of road leading to Kalamazoo Nature Center, a stretch I have bicycled many times. Calls came into three different local police agencies reporting a blue pick-up being driven erratically before the driver reached the group of bicyclists.
This past February, mass shooter Jason Dalton killed six and wounded two others in three separate incidents in between picking up Uber fares. This made the national news, and I imagine this latest incident will as well. Just this week, it was reported that Dalton will be making an insanity defense.
This is a fairly small community, 80,000 in Kalamazoo, 20,000 in Kalamazoo Township. Two incidents like these have a larger impact than they would in a larger city.
Two mass casualty incidents within five months, caused by the two major sources of violent death in our society — guns, and motor vehicles. In this case the victims were not drivers, and had no way of avoiding the other vehicle — they were riding on the right-hard side of the road, and he plowed into them from behind.
As a Trustee, I have worked on our Township’s Non-Motorized Transportation Plan. We are implementing the Complete Streets concept, trying to make streets usable and safe for all types of transportation. But it is hard to see what different design or policy could have made a difference in the outcome of this evening’s tragedy.
This happened only a few hours ago, so we don’t know if the driver was drunk (we can guess), or the names of the victims, or the exact circumstances. All we know is that our community is grieving. Again.