Parents of Divvy bicyclist fatally struck by truck file lawsuit

The parents of a 25-year-old woman fatally struck by a truck while riding a Divvy bike in July in the Northwest Side Avondale neighborhood filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday.

Jim and Nancy Murray filed the lawsuit on behalf of the estate of 25-year-old Virginia Murray on Monday in Cook County Circuit Court against the truck driver and his employer, A&B Flooring Supplies Inc.

Murray was riding north on Sacramento and turning east onto Belmont just after 9 a.m. July 1 when she was struck by the flatbed truck, authorities said at the time. Murray, of the 1200 block of North Marion Court, was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 9:58 a.m., authorities said.

The truck driver was issued a citation for failure to yield to a pedalcyclist in the roadway, according to Chicago Police.

Her death marked the first fatality involving the Divvy system since it launched in 2013, and is the first known bike-sharing fatality nationwide.

“Asking bicyclists and motorists to peacefully coexist is a recipe for disaster. Ginny’s death tragically marks the nation’s first bike-sharing death. But if we cannot find a way to safely accommodate bikes on busy roadways, this will not be the last tragedy of this nature,” attorney Jeffrey Kroll, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Murray family, said in a statement.

The three-count lawsuit claims the truck driver was negligent in failing to keep a proper lookout for bicyclists on the roadway and failing to yield the right of way to a bicyclist. It seeks more than $150,000 in damages.

A representative of A&B Flooring Supplies, reached by phone Monday morning, declined to comment.