<p>Hundreds of people hopped on their bicycles Monday evening and rode through Bridgeport to honor Riley O’Neil, a city employee and champion of improving road safety who was fatally struck by a truck driver while biking over the weekend.</p><p>“We were very lucky to get him as a staff member,” Vig Krishnamurthy, managing deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, told the Sun-Times as a crowd gathered at Palmisano Park.</p><p>O’Neil, 35, had been working at the city's Transportation Department for two years in a program dedicated to preventing collisions on Chicago streets.</p><p>Friday evening, O’Neil was <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/transportation/2026/06/07/cyclist-death-bridgeport-crash-chicagos-safe-streets-program" target="_blank" >riding south along the painted bike lane</a> in the 3200 block of South Halsted Street when a man exiting a car hit him with his door, throwing O’Neil into traffic, authorities said. O’Neil fell under the back wheels of an 18-wheeler semi-truck also heading south and was killed.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center> <div class="Enhancement-item" data-crop=""> <figure class="Figure"><a class="AnchorLink" id="image-1f0000" name="image-1f0000"></a> <picture data-crop="medium"> <source type="image/webp" width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7782353/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F55%2Fb9%2F9e0324924cffba86e9720d209104%2Fmemorialride-260609-8.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/325b9c0/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F55%2Fb9%2F9e0324924cffba86e9720d209104%2Fmemorialride-260609-8.jpg 2x" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <source width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a85f875/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F55%2Fb9%2F9e0324924cffba86e9720d209104%2Fmemorialride-260609-8.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <img class="Image" alt="MEMORIALRIDE_260609-8.jpg" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a85f875/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F55%2Fb9%2F9e0324924cffba86e9720d209104%2Fmemorialride-260609-8.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3854397/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F55%2Fb9%2F9e0324924cffba86e9720d209104%2Fmemorialride-260609-8.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275" data-src="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a85f875/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F55%2Fb9%2F9e0324924cffba86e9720d209104%2Fmemorialride-260609-8.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" > </picture> <div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Friends, family, and cycling advocates attend a vigil for Riley O’Neil at Palmisano Park in the Bridgeport neighborhood on Monday, June 8, 2026.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times</p></div></div> </figure> </div> </div><p>O’Neil was “the most motivated, down-to-earth, ready to work, talented, just 100% positive person,” Krishnamurthy said. “He truly brought his best every single day.