The White Line Basis, which was based in response to Colorado teen bike owner Magnus White’s tragic demise final July, is internet hosting a memorial trip in his honor this August.
Happening August 11, the “Experience for Magnus: Experience for Your Life” is a 13.5-mile trip alongside the highway the place White was killed. The westbound lanes of the freeway the place White was struck and killed by a automotive driver will likely be closed for the occasion. Moreover, a digital trip possibility and native Boulder strolling route will likely be introduced on The White Line Basis web site quickly.
Proceeds from the trip will assist The White Line Basis, and present companions of the trip embody Trek Bicycles, USA Biking, Heavy Lifting Design, It Might Be Me and Experience for Your Life.
“This trip is vital for thus many causes. First, it is a heartfelt tribute to our son, Magnus, whose reminiscence we’ll honor with each pedal stroke. Second, it’s a rallying cry for change,” says Michael White, Magnus’ father.
“The variety of bike owner and pedestrian fatalities is rising dramatically, influenced by many components, and might not be ignored. More and more, proof means that driver conduct is the first contributor to those deaths. It’s essential that we deal with driver conduct and reform penalties instantly.”
Moreover, The White Line Basis is engaged on different technique of advocating for elevated bike owner security, together with a “Lives Price Remembering” movie collection.
“LIVES WORTH REMEMBERING” FILM SERIES
Together with the memorial trip, The White Line Basis launched the primary episode in its movie collection, “Lives Price Remembering” – “Lives Price Remembering: Christian and Michelle Deaton.”
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The movie collection goals to maintain the reminiscences of cyclists who have been the victims of highway violence alive and high of thoughts, even after their tales have moved out of the information cycle.
Every episode includes a household affected by vehicular violence and urges viewers to advocate for higher highway security and driving tradition.
The primary episode options Christian and Michelle Deaton’s story; whereas out for a trip, each have been struck from behind by lumber sliding off the again of a flatbed truck in Napa, California in October 2023. The episode chronicles the outlet left within the lives of their household and pals, and celebrates the couple’s kindness, athleticism and enduring ardour for all times throughout their 21 years of marriage.
“We consider we are able to create political and societal change by harnessing the facility of human empathy and highlighting the true affect of loss,” mentioned a consultant of The White Line Basis regarding the Lives Price Remembering collection.
THE WHITE FAMILY CONTINUES TO FIGHT FOR JUSTICE FOR MAGNUS
Magnus White representing Crew USA on the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Fayetteville in 2022.
(Picture credit score: Penultimate Stage)
Whereas engaged on affecting change for cyclists nationwide, the White household continues to battle for justice for his or her son.
White had been placing in ultimate preparations earlier than planning to move to Glasgow, Scotland to compete within the Junior Males’s Mountain Bike Cross-Nation World Championships on August 10, 2023.
“Magnus skilled and raced in Southern California, Virginia, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Montana and Utah…in Belgium, the Netherlands, England, Eire and the Czech Republic. But he was killed by a driver in his hometown, a biking vacation spot and supposed biking Mecca, on a preferred designated bike route he’d ridden dozens and dozens of occasions,” says Michael White, Magnus’s father.
In response to the unimaginable devastation and grief confronted by his household and teammates, White’s mother and father based The White Line Basis in December 2023.
The mission of The White Line is to “protect, honor and use the legacy of Magnus White to encourage cyclists globally, to assist their improvement, to boost consciousness of bicycle and car security and create change for safer biking environments.”
The White Line Basis has massive objectives resembling sponsoring future junior biking groups, providing scholarships to younger cyclists and advocating for change to make biking safer resembling advocating for extra rumble strips, pace cameras and wider bike lanes nationwide.
Nevertheless, the wheels of justice flip slowly, and progress within the case towards the motive force who struck White is creeping alongside.
As of late March 2024, the twentieth Judicial District Courtroom in Colorado had postponed the accused driver’s, Yeva Smilianska, listening to and trial date on the request of her lawyer to offer the defendant’s authorized crew time to assessment the greater than 70 hours of legislation enforcement physique digital camera footage.
Smilianska, 23, faces one depend of vehicular murder by reckless driving – a category 4 felony in Colorado – which carries a penalty of two to 6 years in jail and a high quality of $2,000 to $500,000.
“[Smilianska] ended Magnus’s life—a life that was brimming with immense potential. She has stolen his future, denied him any alternative to pursue his ambitions, and irrevocably destroyed our lives. We’re resolute in our pursuit of justice for Magnus, to make sure that no different household has to endure the nightmare we live. We belief that the justice system will maintain the motive force accountable for her actions,” the White household mentioned in a press release in March.
Smilianska’s subsequent courtroom listening to is scheduled for Could 24, 2024, when she is predicted to enter a plea.
