Murcia en Bici joins the Ghost Bikes initiative

“Murcia en bici”, a non profit organization whose aim is to promote use of the bicycle as a safe, respected and sustainable mode of transport, has erected today the first ghost bike in the city of Murcia. This is a tribute to all those cyclists who were killed in the streets of Murcia, victims of road violence, and is intended to remind drivers the fragility and defenceless of bike users in both urban and inter-urban roads. These terrible events involving cyclists rarely count in the numbers of deaths resulting from traffic crashes, and campaigns to spread awareness and prevent this kind of accidents are still to be seen, all these despite the fact that cyclists –still a minority in our country-- are also traffic. Thus, our intention is to keep those deaths from being forgotten, from going unnoticed.

To inaugurate its adhesion to this cause, the platform Murcia en Bici has chosen the place of the latest fatal crash involving a cyclist in the Region of Murcia, El Cruce de El Raal, while keeping in mind every cyclist killed before that accident, back in February of 2009.

Around 8pm, members of Murcia en Bici placed a white bike near the crash site, after the group of cyclists marched together from the starting point near Queen Sofía Hospital, in remembrance of those fellow riders that are no longer amongst us.

The Ghost Bikes movement is a world wide initiative for the remembrance of those cyclists that were victims of traffic crashes (www.ghostbikes.org).

This action is also an attempt to raise awareness in our society about the vulnerability of cyclists against motorized vehicles, as well as to demand safe and sustainable transportation policies in our area.