CDOT, Bicycle Colorado launch summer safety campaign amid rising cyclist fatalities
From 2020 to 2024, nearly half of all bicyclist fatalities in Colorado happened during summer months. It's a historically deadly time of year for cyclists. However, a new safety campaign launched by CDOT and Bicycle Colorado wants to change that statistic. It aims to educate the public through displaying signs memorializing bicyclist fatalities and explaining the "Three-Foot Law." It requires motorists to give people biking at least three feet of space, even if it means crossing a double yellow line to do so when the coast is clear.
"I'll never stop advocating," said Teri Vogel, who showed up to support the new initiative.
Vogel knows the pain and struggle of loss all too well. "My husband was killed by a hit-and-run driver July 4, 2019. Chuck made the world a better place. He was just an incredible human."
Chuck Vogel was an avid rider and outdoor enthusiast who loved spending time with family.
"He was constantly paying it forward, always in the background, but using it for good. I am his voice for him now," Teri Vogel said.
"We're at one bicyclist death every month in traffic crashes," said Sam Cole, traffic safety communications manager for CDOT. "These are real lives on the line."
Teri Vogel says now is the time to act, because everyone deserves to get home safely: "Every person is someone's loved one and child and didn't come home at the end of the day."
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