Biking advocacy groups held an event and ride on Saturday aimed at honoring Jonathon Hussing, who was struck and killed by a charter bus at the intersection of Scott Street and MLK Boulevard in Covington in late April.
The event also aimed to draw attention to what the organizers viewed as inadequate attention to safety in the region’s road infrastructure, with many arguing that Hussing’s death could have been avoided with better road planning.
The aim of the event, said Joe Humpert of Queen City Bike, was not only to help the family of Hussing feel “supported and celebrated” but also “to connect more people to our advocacy community and to build a broader coalition to bring issues of dangerous infrastructure, traffic safety, accessibility for all road users, especially vulnerable road users.”
An incident report from Covington Police suggests that the Cavalier Coaches charter bus that struck Hussing at the end of April ran the red light at the intersection of East MLK Boulevard and Scott Street, where the accident occurred. Hussing was later transported to UC Medical Center in Cincinnati, where he died from his injuries.
The investigation into Hussing’s death is ongoing, but the initial incident report lays out the events of the accident and cites the methods the police used to determine the bus driver ran through the red light at the intersection, namely video evidence from a street-facing camera at Covington Latin School and cameras within the bus itself.
“Video evidence was obtained from the bus and Covington Latin School,” the report reads. “The videos showed that Unit 1 [the bus] traveled for approximately twenty seconds on East Martin Luther King Boulevard until the point of impact. During the entire time, the eastbound traffic light for Unit 1 was red.”
The police also interviewed a witness, Newport resident Michelle Gilbert-Nies. She could not attest to the color of the light, but stated that she was yielding to Hussing as he was traversing the cross walk.
“It’s supposed to be the safest place in the street to cross, and it wasn’t,” said Kathy Cunningham, president of Queen City Bike.
Cunningham, like many at the event, felt that the current infrastructure was set up in such a way that deaths at the intersection became not only possible but likely.
“For Jonathan and for the 1000s of people who will be killed in this coming year by drivers or vehicles, we cannot accept the status quo,” Cunningham said.
As evidence of this, organizers pointed to other deaths that had occurred at the same intersection, namely Gloria San Miguel, who was killed in a hit-and-run while riding her bike across the 11th Street Bridge in August of 2022.
“Gloria lost her life riding safely with the right of way,” said Julia Keister, founder of the Go with Glo Collaborative, which was formed in the wake of San Miguel’s death. “Gloria lost her life on our pavement. Gloria lost her life on the same street as Jonathan. Gloria should be here. Our streets are not safe.”
The event organizers proposed several solutions to this problem, including more brightly painted crosswalks, tighter corners at intersections—which they argued slowed traffic—and the installation of safety islands for pedestrians. They distributed flyers with diagrams of these proposals to the attendees.
After the organizers’ statements, event attendees mounted their bikes and rode through the city, passing Hussing’s home and hangouts. Later in the ride, they occupied the intersection where Hussing was killed, observing a moment of silence. The ride concluded in Randolph Park, where the organizers held a celebration.
“We don’t want to keep doing this,” Cunningham said, “and it shouldn’t happen. There’s layers and layers of changes that we can ask for from our cities and states, and many of these they can actually accomplish.”
“The city of Covington must do something,” Keister said. “The state of Kentucky must do something. Go on and paint the streets brighter. Go on and slow down the traffic. Go on and create the bike lanes. Go on and call your commissioners. Go on and write your state representatives. Go on and speak up at your city hall. Go on and keep riding your bike down your streets. Go on and make the streets a place for our people. Gloria and Jonathan should be here.”