Police are investigating the death of a bicyclist who was riding in a bike lane in Lincoln Square Monday night when he was struck by a car as a possible DUI.
Donald Heggemann, a well-liked 59-year-old ceramicist who lived in Edgewater, was headed north in a bike lane in the 5100 block of North Damen Avenue when he was hit about 8 p.m. by a Volvo S60 being driven by a 30-year-old woman, according to a police report.
Witnesses flagged down police when they saw the crash and the Volvo drive away. Officers pulled the car over, and the driver consented to a Breathalyzer test, which registered a 0.20 blood alcohol concentration, the police report states. That is more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.
Heggemann suffered trauma to the head and body and was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:32 p.m., according to police. A Tuesday autopsy determined he died of multiple injuries, and his death was ruled an accident, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Having grown up in St. Louis, Heggemann had lived in Chicago since at least 2010 and has a twin brother, according to colleague and friend Dubhe Carreno, a ceramics instructor at Northeastern Illinois University.
He wasn’t married and didn’t have any children, said Carreno, who added they had lunch together every day they were together on campus. Heggemann worked part time in the ceramics department before landing a full-time spot last year as an administrative assistant in the art and design department.
“He was a joy to know as an artist, as a co-worker, as a friend,” Carreno said.
Carreno met Heggemann, who most knew as “Don,” when he took a class she taught in 2010. He loved ceramics and kept taking her classes until they became friends outside the classroom.
“From that point forward, he just became part of Northeastern,” Carreno said. Heggemann took his bike everywhere, and Carreno described him as “quirky,” tall and “very funny.”
“You might not get him at first,” she said.
Ceramics was his passion, added Kim Ambriz, Art and Design Department Chair at Northeastern Illinois University. Heggemann was a ceramics artist, a “ceramicist,” with his own practice and had two roles at the university: one was part time as needed, such as when ceramic “firings” needed to be done. “They take 10-12 hours,” Ambriz said.
As a front desk office administrator, he was “amazing,” Ambriz said. “The most organized person — he was great. He was the first point of contact for everybody. He was just really positive, and you need that at the front desk when students are coming in and not knowing what’s going on,” Ambriz said.
“He was really happy to be here. He really enjoyed his work here.”
Heggemann shared a special camaraderie with one of the art history professors because they both rode their bikes to work every day. “They were always talking about biking,” Ambriz said.
Dangerous stretch for bikers along Damen
That stretch of Damen Avenue has been a hotbed of crashes and close calls, according to Christina Whitehouse, founder of the bike safety group Bike Lane Uprising.
“Damen is supposed to be more relaxed and more inviting for people,” she said. “This person was doing what they were supposed to be doing, biking in the bike lane ... and they were killed following the rules.”
Whitehouse said fatal bike crashes are becoming far too common in the city, where at least four people have died this year after being struck while riding a bike, but that number is likely higher since the parameters for tracking cyclist deaths aren’t clear-cut.
“Chicago is supposed to be one of the top biking cities, and we’re still losing people left and right,” Whitehouse said.
The motorist was taken to a hospital for more tests, which she declined, and detectives continue to investigate, according to the report.
