A 52-year-old Chicago man died Saturday evening after a driver struck him as he bicycled out of the North Branch Trail and crossed Harts Road in Niles, in a crosswalk that has no flashing beacons to warn approaching traffic. The crash happened at 6:47 p.m. at the Riverside Drive crosswalk, where Matthew McCallum was riding a black bicycle when he was hit by an eastbound Audi.
McCallum, of the 1700 block of Olive Avenue in Chicago, was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital with life-threatening injuries and was pronounced dead at 7:40 p.m., according to Journal & Topics. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office later identified him as the bicyclist killed in the collision. The Audi, driven by a 46-year-old man, sustained damage to its front windshield in the impact.
Niles police said the driver remained at the scene, cooperated with investigators and showed no signs of impairment. The investigation remained open as of publication, and police said no charges had been filed. Harts Road was shut down between Milwaukee and Touhy avenues while crash-assistance officers worked the scene, with the closure lasting until 3:23 a.m. Sunday.
Major Crash Team Responds to Scene
Officers from the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force (NORTAF)'s Major Crash Assistance Team (MCAT) responded to investigate the collision, the report noted. A police squad car remained posted at the site as late as about 10 a.m. Sunday, according to Craig Niedermeier, chairman of the Niles Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, who spoke with cyclists passing through the crossing between roughly 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. that day.
Niedermeier told the outlet there had been no other recent crashes at Harts Road and Riverside Drive near the trail crossing. He also said the Village of Niles has not applied for a beacon at that intersection. Harts Road has no flashing beacons at its North Branch Trail crossing at all, a gap that drew attention in the wake of McCallum's death.
Why a State Road Makes Fixes Harder
Niedermeier said Harts Road is a state road, and that installing flashing beacons on state-controlled routes is a difficult process. The obstacle echoes a pattern seen elsewhere in the North suburbs: a 2024 analysis by Streetsblog Chicago found that at least three crashes that month seriously injured or killed people biking in Morton Grove, Skokie and Lincolnwood, all on roads controlled by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
One of those crashes killed 74-year-old Michael Rapp of Skokie, who was struck and killed by a pickup truck while crossing Dempster Street and Lehigh Avenue in Morton Grove on bicycle in July 2024, according to the Chicago Tribune. He was pronounced dead at Lutheran General Hospital, per a separate Patch report on the crash. In response to a spike in fatal bike and pedestrian crashes, Niles police launched a Data-Driven Crash Reduction Initiative aimed at areas with the highest number of crashes, the Tribune reported.
A Trail Crossing With a History of Tragedy
The North Branch Trail corridor has seen fatal consequences for cyclists before. In July 2020, 13-year-old Niles resident Sam Yousif was struck and killed by a pickup truck while bicycling across Waukegan Road and Cleveland Avenue, an intersection on a designated bike route where cyclists had to cross a busy roadway without a traffic signal, the Tribune reported at the time.
Niles has installed safety upgrades at other trail crossings in the years since. The village added Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons at the North Branch Trail and Howard Street crossing, along with push-button activation, crosswalk signage and ADA crossing features, according to the Village of Niles. Under Illinois law, motorists are required to stop and yield to pedestrians crossing in a crosswalk, per the village's own guidance.
No comparable beacons exist at the Harts Road and Riverside Drive crossing where McCallum died. As the investigation into Saturday's crash continues, the Niles Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee chairman's account of a quiet crash history at that specific spot stands in contrast to the broader pattern of fatal bike crashes recorded on state-controlled roads across the North suburbs in recent years.
