13-year-old killed while cycling to be honored with ‘Ride of Silence.’ Here’s when, where
Bicyclists in the Tacoma area will ride about one mile in silence Sunday to a crosswalk in Parkland where a 13-year-old boy was struck and killed by a driver last month.
Local bicycling advocates said they hope the memorial ride will call attention to the need for better infrastructure to keep people safe while riding bikes.
“Michael and other victims of traffic violence deserve better, and we’ve got to build safer infrastructure for everyone, especially our kids,” said Andrew Austin, a volunteer helping to organize the event.
Michael Weilert was hit and killed the afternoon of July 19 while using a crosswalk to bike across Pacific Avenue. Signals for the crossing blinked and other traffic had stopped, but a woman continued through and struck Weilert. The driver was not arrested or cited at the scene.
The Washington State Patrol is continuing to investigate the crash. Sgt. Darren Wright said Monday it is a lengthy investigation that will likely take at least a couple of months to complete.
The “Ride of Silence” will start at 4 p.m. at the Sprinker Recreation Center, 14824 C St. S., according to the event’s Facebook page. Riders will go north on C Street for about a mile to where Weilert was struck near 134th Street East. The ride will be slow and contemplative, Austin said. He said organizers want to make sure the ride is doable for all ages and abilities.
“It’ll hopefully be quite a few people, so it’s a real visual around the fact that people biking deserve to exist safely in our streets just like everyone else,” Austin said.
Austin, 38, is a board member of Downtown: On the Go!, one of three groups organizing the ride. The transportation group advocates for transit options in downtown Tacoma. Also putting together the event are 2nd Cycle, a bike shop in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood and Cascade Bicycle Club, a statewide organization based in Seattle that educates riders and advocates for safe places to bike.
Weilert’s mother, Amber, told The News Tribune’s Matt Driscoll last week that her son loved his family, and that friends gravitated toward his personality. Driscoll wrote that Weilert also loved BMX biking and camping — the boy had returned home from a trip to Ocean Shores the day he was killed. Weilert’s funeral was to be July 30.
According to the event page, Weilert also loved watching anime, and he was proud to be a Slytherin. Bicyclists attending were encouraged to wear Harry Potter gear or an anime shirt. Austin said he hopes his wife, also a Harry Potter fan, will help him decorate his bike.
Paul Tolmé, a spokesperson for Cascade Bicycle Club, said he hopes everyone who rides bikes or has loved ones who ride in Tacoma will consider coming.
“We really want to show the community and policymakers that Mike’s death cannot have been in vain,” Tolmé said. “There needs to be some good coming out of this.”
