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Yesterday evening, the tragic news broke: a female cyclist had been struck and killed by a military truck at the intersection of 12th and New York Avenue NW. WJLA reports that the woman was 68 years old. The news channel has the terrible scene and its aftermath:
“Across the street inside a packed Bobby Van’s grill, customers and staff heard the impact. One woman, who did not want to be shown on TV, saw it and said there wasn’t even time to scream.
‘No, you couldn’t. It happened to fast,’ she told us.
Linda Frias was waiting tables at the time.
She said, ‘The whole room was like ‘oh my God.”
As passer-bys watched Metropolitan Police began their investigation. The D.C. National Guard says the beige military truck was moving forward into position at the intersection and says there was a ground guide, a guardsmen on foot telling pedestrians to stay out of the trucks’ path.
‘We will look at the video to make sure the pedestrian didn’t run into the truck as it was moving.”
The incident was just five blocks from the Nuclear Security Summit. The military truck reportedly weighed five tons.
WaPo reported that “it was not immediately clear who was being escorted in the motorcade for which the guard vehicles were deploying.” That intersection had not been closed to traffic but parking was restricted.
The WashCycle said it best: “Our thoughts should all be with the victim’s friends and family at the moment. While I don’t want to distract from that, I hope MPD and the Secret Service conduct a thorough investigation as well as take a long look at their security and motorcade policies after this tragedy.”