She wanted to replace the dead flowers on a ghost bike erected at that site on 73rd Avenue where it intersects with the Erie Lackawanna trail in Schererville. Her father, 68-year-old Donald Seitzinger, Jr., of Crown Point, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital shortly after the crash.
At the marked crosswalk where her father was struck, Woodard began crossing 73rd Avenue to return to her car. A motorist stopped, as it should, allowing her to cross. But a second motorist started to drive around the first vehicle and almost hit Woodard, she said.
The motorist had her window down so Woodard yelled at her, “My dad was just killed here!” Later that day, Woodard posted on her Facebook page about the incident: “PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE!” This is possibly the crux of the problem, not only at that potentially dangerous intersection but at most intersections of motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Everyone needs to pay better attention while on Region streets and trails. My recent column on Seitzinger’s death and the circumstances around it highlighted this fact.
(Read it at NWI.com .) “This was so tragic.
What do we need to do to get a push-button stoplight installed there? Will it take another death?” asked a female bicyclist who lives in the nearby Briar Ridge neighborhood. She used to work with Seitzinger at Cleveland Cliffs’ Indiana Harbor plant, where he earned the nickname, “Mr. Safety.
” Another bicyclist felt compelled to make a pilgrimage to the ghost bike.