Silent ride will honor cyclists killed or injured riding on KC area streets

Bicyclist Mitchell Krasnopoler of Leawood rides a bicycle to get exercise. He rides to spend times outdoors. Sometimes he rides to commute to work.

“The last reason I ride is because my son Nathan was killed while riding a bicycle, and it’s one of the ways I process that loss,” Krasnopoler said. “It gives me a way to remember him every time I ride.”

On Wednesday evening, Krasnopoler and other members of the Kansas City bicycling community will ride to remember all cyclists killed or injured while riding on Kansas City area streets.

They will ride in silence.

Cycling Kansas City’s 10th annual Ride of Silence is a slow round-trip procession that takes riders from Brookside to Westport and back to Brookside.

The ride will begin with a brief ceremony at 6:45 p.m. at West 62nd Street and Brookside Boulevard, where organizers will read the names of more than 70 bicyclists killed since 1991, according to Cycling Kansas City. Most died in the Kansas City area, but a few who died elsewhere had ties to the area.

“We had a loss recently — Anthony Saluto,” said Krasnopoler, the ride’s organizer. “It’s a very sad story. He’s a young man who was using his bicycle to get home from work and was killed.”

Saluto died April 3 when struck by a car while riding west on Independence Avenue near Lydia Avenue. The eastbound car swerved for an unknown reason and struck him.

Led by the Cycling Kansas City Race Team, riders will take to the streets at 7 p.m., the same local start time for other rides being held across the U.S. and other parts of the world.

The ride is expected to take about an hour and will not exceed 10 mph.

“We as a community want motorists to know that cyclists have a right to the road, to share the road and to look out for cyclists,” Krasnopoler said. “Cycling is a great sport. It is also great for transportation.”

Whether riding for recreation or to commute, bicyclists have a right to the road, Krasnopoler said.

“Motorists need to take note of us,” he said. “They need to look out for us and be careful when they are around us.”

His son, Nathan Krasnopoler, was a student at Johns Hopkins University when he died.

He was riding to his Baltimore home from a farmers market with a backpack of fresh vegetables in February 2011 on a street near campus, close to his apartment. An elderly driver approached from behind and then turned into a drive in front of him.

“He crashed into her car, tumbled over her car and then ended up under her car,” Mitchell Krasnopoler said.

His son lost consciousness. He died from his injuries in August 2011.

The ride Wednesday evening is a short one. People of all abilities are invited to join the procession. They are encouraged to bring a helmet.

“The ride is silent because of the fallen cyclists — they are silent,” Krasnopoler said. “We feel our voice as a cycling community is stronger on this one night when we are silent.”

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Silent ride will honor cyclists killed or injured riding on KC area streets."