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Family of man hit, killed wants more protection for cyclists

Posted at 8:47 PM, Feb 22, 2013
and last updated 2013-02-22 22:47:25-05

PROVO, Utah – The family of a Brigham Young University employee who died last Friday after being hit by an SUV, pushing him into the path of a FrontRunner train in Provo is speaking out a week after his death.

69-year-old Douglas Crow was going on one of his daily bike rides on the morning of Feb. 15 around 7:30 when police say he was hit by an SUV near 600 South and 700 West, pushing him into the path of the train.

Nellie Crow, Doug’s wife of 47 years, says it hasn’t completely sunk in that he’s gone.

“I’m still waiting for him to come home. It’s hard to really realize he won’t be coming home,” she said.

Doug’s family says he loved to bike, often riding before going to work at BYU, where he was an employee for more than 30 years. His family considered him a bike collector – he had dozens of them – and he died doing something he loved.

“He was one to always be biking all over the place. A lot of people said they are going to miss seeing him biking through the streets,” Jeremy Crow, Doug’s son, said.

His family says they think a lot more needs to be done to protect bicyclists on the roads.

“The fact that he was as safe as he was and something like this still happened to him, says to me that there’s still things we can do to make sure that people who are riding bikes are safer,” Jeremy Crow said.

Police say 49-year-old Maria Fregoso-Avina, the driver of the SUV, had frost on her windshield when she hit Crow. She was arrested Thursday and charged with negligent homicide.

To honor and remember Douglas Crow, the biking community is planning a ride of silence from downtown Provo to the BYU campus, then to a ghost bike on Monday, Feb. 25, at 6:30 p.m.