The accident occurred on Friday around 6:30 p.m. in Eyjeaux, a town of a thousand inhabitants near Limoges, we learned from the gendarmerie. The unhelmeted cyclist was hit by a car, which fled. Injured in the neck, the retiree died in hospital.
A call for witnesses was launched to find the driver of the vehicle, but he had not yet given anything on Sunday morning, an AFP correspondent learned from the gendarmes.
The victim was a 74-year-old former mason, Jean-Marc Chatard, well known to Limougeauds who saw him traveling around in overalls and boots on his bike.
“Limoges loses its emblem”declared Charles, a restaurateur in town, to 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 people to pay tribute to him next Saturday in front of Limoges town hall.
“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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