9.10.2007

bryce a. lewis, 19 years old

was the cyclist killed by the dump truck on friday. he had just moved here from colorado less than a month ago, and was in love with the city. he loved riding bikes, and fixing bikes, and was also an artist and a musician.

he was just a kid. this is so fucking tragic.

i spoke with his roommate last night, down at the crash site. she is also the girlfriend of caleb, the other cyclist. all i could do was reach out to her... i had no words. i cannot imagine the grief she must feel, and all of his family and friends. not having known him, grief is not part of my direct experience with this tragedy, though i do feel a sense of loss.

as i stood there and snapped pictures of the memorial, i couldn't help but feeling a bit guilty for capturing this moment of grief... as the young woman knelt to light candles next to a sign which read "BRYCE WE LOVE + MISS YOU SO MUCH", a tragic and painful smile on her face...

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and stenciled on the street, in the bike lane on eastlake and the right lane on fuhrman:
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my conversation with lauren did make me feel better about the slightly activist nature of the response to his death: his family and his friends are 100% behind our efforts to raise the visibility of this horrible tragedy. the more people know about what happened here, the less likely it is to happen again.

ride safe, boys and girls. cyclists and drivers.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey, my name is kat bentley
i am an old friend from colorado
well, i dont live in colorado anymore, i moved to texas, but i was one of his closest friends
i went to his middle school, which then extends into a high school, as im sure he told you

I just found out about this a couple weeks ago, and i immediately lost it. I was crazy about him
i miss him so much, and i just want to say... i regret everything i didnt say and somethings i did
i just hope i wasnt someone he regretted being friends with

Kat Reinhart said...

wow.

so i never actually met bryce... i just ride bikes in seattle... i commute through the intersection where it happened every day. and it scared me shitless, it could have been me just as easily... it could have been any number of my friends.

i'm sure that the feeling of being scared every time i turn down that hill, to the outrage i feel at the lack of consideration of cyclists in this city and the dangers we do face on an everyday basis, are nothing compared to the feeling of loss that people that were a part of his life have. and i'm not trying to claim that i know how it feels to have known him. it's just weird, that everything we have found out about him is that he was the most amazing person that ever lived, and that we have only come to know him through his death. so really, more than anyone who never knew the kid can say, i am so sorry for your loss, and i am sure he didn't regret being friends with you; that doesn't seem like something that he would do.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I went to school with Bryce and he was a senior in my crew (Crew is like home room) and I also knew him in middle school. He is amazing; he was the sweetest and most selfless person I have ever met. He would help you with out even being asked, he was so aware of the people around him and they're emotions. He was, and still is, my hero. He was indestructible in my eyes; I couldn’t believe it when I heard he was gone.
He was the type of person that you could just relate to and instantly love. He is hilarious, and could make you smile even if you didn’t want to. He was so full of energy and life; it’s still hard to accept that the light he gave off is lost forever... He was amazingly talented with any art form, music, painting, graffiti, and you all ready know his love for bikes. He had a lot in front of him, and would have gone so far in life. It’s a shame that a great, loving, funny, selfless, talented person like Bryce had to leave, there are so many bad people out in the world, and people like Bryce don’t exist, and if they do they are in extremely short supply.


When you needed someone to talk to, he was there.
If you needed help, he was there.
If you needed a good laugh, he was there.

R.I.P.- B.A.L.
Your fovever in our hearts <3.