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Bicyclist killed after being hit, dragged by dump truck on S. Marion Street at Bayaud

Witness heard scream, saw dump truck drag victim
Alexis Bounds
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DENVER -- A truck driver who police say struck and killed a bicyclist on South Marion Street this week, has been charged with careless driving resulting in death.

The probable cause statement states David Anton was driving north on South Marion just before 4 p.m. Wednesday. He turned east onto Bayaud Street and failed to yield to a bicyclist, Alexis Bounds, 37, who was in a designated bike lane.

"I heard a scream," Ryan Dillon told Denver7.

Dillon was visiting with neighbors nearby.

After hearing the scream, he looked over and "saw something under a dump truck being dragged along."

He said he ran over to stop the truck and that's when he and a neighbor saw some terrible, terrible injuries.

"We tore our shirts off and tried to rip them up and start some tourniquets," he said, "and just comforted her and tried to keep her conscious until the fire and paramedics could get there."

A bicycle advocate wrote two messages on the pavement.

One, where the collision began, reads, "Another slain bicyclist." The other, where the collision ended about 50 feet away, states, "Stop killing us."

Bike rider Joshua Garrity told Denver7 that he's been riding in that same bike lane for nearly a month.

He said, for the most part, he feels safe.

"Except some of the intersections. They kind of get a bit sketchy because the lines kind of disappear, and you don't know where the cars are supposed to go, or the people (bicyclists) are supposed to go."

When asked his reaction to the fatal crash, Garrity replied, "That could have been me."

The city has proposed adding barriers that would separate cars and bicycles on that stretch of South Marion, but the work is not slated to begin until next year at the earliest.

The argument over that protected bike lane is raging on social media.

One person tweeted: "Using this to further your goal to install protected bike lanes in, yes, an historically designated parkway, is shameful."

Another repled: "It can't come soon enough. And I don't want to hear more NIMBY hogwash that someone's interpretation of 'historic' is more important that keeping people from dying."

The Good Samaritan told Denver7 that the driver appeared to be shocked.

"He had no idea that the incident had even happened," Dillon said.

The Good Samaritan's message to others: Pay attention, whether you are behind the wheel, on two wheels or on your own two feet.