Sometime in the days leading up to the race, activists painted six locations on the race route with the phrase “Forget Me Not” and a white and blue traffic cone. Each location marks the spot where someone – a pedestrian, a motorcyclist or a driver – had died in a collision.
According to the artists/activists, who have chosen to remain anonymous, the markings are intended to educate the public: “It's one thing to say ‘slow down, save lives,’ it's much more impactful to say ‘Someone died right here. Don't be one to take someone else's life here.’”
Here are the locations, and the crash that happened at each according to this WSDOT tool and this Washington Traffic Commission tool:
- 72-year-old Zhilan Chen died just a few months ago while crossing Whistalks Way on foot.
- Williams Parks died in 2020 while riding a motorcycle on Government Way near Greenwood Road.
- An impaired and speeding driver rolled his vehicle in 2022, killing himself, at Government Way and Greenwood Road.
- Niket Everett, father of five, was found dead on Pettet Drive near Nora Avenue on an early morning in 2024. The autopsy found he died as a result of blunt force injuries. Police have no evidence he was hit by a car driver, but the coroner often uses the same description for those who died in car crashes.
- An impaired driver died near Government Way and River Ridge Boulevard in 2021.
- An impaired and speeding driver died near Riverside Avenue and Cedar Street (at the northbound onramp to the Maple Street Bridge).
Two other locations meet the criteria of traffic deaths on the Bloomsday route, but were not marked due to proximity to a police precinct.
- A pedestrian died on Riverside Avenue and Wall Street in 2023 after being hit by a driver.
- A pedestrian died on Riverside Avenue and Stevens Street in 2021 after being struck by a driver.
The activists say the action is borne out of frustration with the sluggishness of city bureaucracy.
“The lack of memorial and action is part of what pushed locals to take matters into their own hands and create stencils to pay respects to those lost to vehicular violence, and to let their family members and friends know they have not been forgotten,” wrote one of the artists behind the murals in an anonymous email to RANGE.
In the case of Whistalks Way and Randolph Road, where Zhilan Chen was killed by a driver, the city had known it was a dangerous location. It’s near Spokane Falls Community College, where students and other residents must cross four high-speed lanes of traffic to reach the college and nearby bus stops.
The city has been planning to build an enhanced crosswalk – a “pedestrian hybrid beacon” – since at least fall of 2023, but it was not built in time to prevent Chen’s death. The crosswalk’s construction is planned for this year’s construction season but could be delayed by equipment lead times.
“In the amount of time spent gathering feedback, planning, proposing, and bidding, a dozen or more cheap, adaptive design projects could have been implemented to calm traffic and enhance people's experience and safety on Riverside,” wrote one of the artists. “The longer we wait to implement changes, no matter how small, the more people are seriously injured and killed due to our inaction. The city often fears liability for doing simple pilot projects, but where is the accountability for the current designs actively harming people and making Spokane a dangerous place to live?” [emphasis theirs.]
Note: Just days after the markers were painted, a cyclist was hit by a driver at Nettleton Street and Sharp Avenue, only two blocks off the Bloomsday route. The cyclist was severely injured and the driver fled the scene, according to a Facebook post from a relative of the victim.
