the essential
The death of a septuagenarian cyclist, knocked down on Friday November 8 at the end of the day by a car, aroused great emotion in Limoges, where he was considered an “emblematic” figure, nicknamed “the man in blue”, because he traveled by bike in overalls.
The terrible accident occurred on Friday around 6:30 p.m. in Eyjeaux, a town of a thousand inhabitants near Limoges. A cyclist, well known to Limougeauds, was hit by a car, which fled. Injured in the neck, this 74-year-old retired man died in hospital a few hours later.
In the process, a call for witnesses was launched to find the driver of the vehicle. Because apart from the seriousness of the facts, the identity of the victim arouses a lot of emotion in the city. It was a 74-year-old former mason, Jean-Marc Chatard, who regularly saw him traveling in overalls and boots on his bike.
A Facebook page in his name
“Limoges is losing its emblem,” declared Charles, a restaurateur in town, to Le Populaire du center, the local newspaper, which devoted a front page appeal to this accident. “You can imagine the importance of this character. He had, without having asked for anything, his Facebook page, a newspaper bore his name. He was the Man in Blue, but I have the blues.”
“He was the emblematic cyclist of Limoges, known to everyone for decades. We mourn the memory of the man and the symbol he represented,” says the Véli-Vélo association in a press release, which calls for tribute to him. next Saturday in front of Limoges town hall.
It is with immense sadness that we learn that Jean-Marc Chatard, known as the Man in Blue, was killed by a motorist on departmental road 979 in Eyjeaux. He was the emblematic cyclist of #Limogesknown to everyone for decades. pic.twitter.com/rAc8p1lr1N
— Véli-vélo (@velivelimoges) https://twitter.com/velivelolimoges/status/1855260057052520480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“We are concerned about the increase in motorized violence against cyclists. This is the 2nd fatal accident involving cyclists in 2 months on 2 km of this road, and the 4th cyclist killed in a year in Limoges Métropole,” adds the association which calls on the Department to develop “real cycling infrastructure along its roads”.
His death comes a little less than a month after that of a cyclist crushed by an SUV driver on October 15 in Paris, which highlighted the sometimes conflicting coexistence between bicycles and cars.
In 2023, 226 cyclists were killed on the roads of France, or 18% more than in 2019. The majority of these fatal accidents took place in rural or peri-urban areas.
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