WASHINGTON D.C., DC — The biking community is mourning the loss of 54-year-old cycling activist David Salovesh after he was hit by a car and killed Friday on the corner of 12th Street and Florida Avenue in Northeast.
The driver, 23-year-old Robert Earl Little, Jr, of Northwest, DC was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
A makeshift memorial has already popped up at the crash site.
As friends and fellow activists grieve, one man is working on a tribute he never thought he'd have to make--a ghost bike.
“This morning, I really, really, really did not want to paint this," said Matthew Sampson, who describes Salovesh as his mentor. "You know, I woke up and I was like is he actually gone? He is actually gone."
On typical mornings, Matthew would have been scrolling through the Twitter page David used to manage, @DCBikeWX, checking out the conditions for the day.
Salovesh had just posted about the rain Friday morning--hours before his death.
"It’s so heartbreaking. Usually these are so divorced of the people, like I’m sad for the people, but I don’t know them, and this was someone I know," said Matthew.
This is the fifth ghost bike he has painted in the last year.
Each one represents a biker who was killed by a car.
David's tribute marks the first of 2019.
“Dave was sort of like the glue that held everyone together I feel like. He was so friendly, but then also extreme. He was the one sort of leading us, you know?” said Matthew.
That's why Matthew is helping to lead his memorial--painting therapeutic brushstrokes of ghostly white on the bike that reminded him how swiftly death can come for cyclists.
“This is actually my old bike, and it’s the bike that I crashed on and broke my hand last September," said Matthew.
He says a driver had tried to run him off the road "in a fit of road rage," and he flipped over his bike.
"I was planning to sell it, but then I was like, unfortunately, there’s bound to be a death this year, so I’ll save it, and use it for that, and it will be sort of therapeutic for me to let go of this bike. Little did I know it would be Dave, you know Dave, who was so special to the Bike DC community. I’m honored that this bike could go to a better use," he said.
Now, Matthew's bike will serve as a quiet reminder to safely share the road--in the very place where one of the D.C. biking community's most vocal advocates was silenced.
“Anyone who bikes there is going to know that someone died there, and while that’s a sad thing, it’s also sort of empowering to know that someone’s going to be watching out for you if you’re biking in D.C." said Matthew.
He and other friends will place the ghost bike at the crash scene Sunday morning at 11 a.m.