A Skokie man who was critically injured in a July traffic crash died on Aug. 15, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
According to Skokie police, the man, identified as 27-year-old Joseph James Center by the Medical Examiner’s office, was traveling southbound on Gross Point Road on a bicycle in Skokie when he was struck by a vehicle heading north on the same road at the intersection of Skokie Boulevard on July 24 at 7:05 p.m.
At the time of the crash, Skokie police said Center’s condition was critical but stable. The Medical Examiner’s office ruled Center’s death as an accident caused by blunt force injuries stemming from a motor vehicle striking a bicyclist.
Skokie Police Chief Jesse Barnes confirmed this week that Center was the same man who was hit by the vehicle on July 24.
Center’s death marks the third cyclist to be killed in a traffic accident this summer in Niles Township. On Aug. 12 a 37-year-old cyclist died after being struck by two vehicles in a hit-and-run in Skokie in the 3500 block of Oakton Street. In Morton Grove, 74-year-old cyclist Michael Rapp was hit by a car in the area of Lehigh Avenue and Dempster Street on July 9 and pronounced dead at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
Additionally, 85-year-old pedestrian Yalda D. Shabou was killed when hit by a vehicle when he was crossing Milwaukee Avenue on Church Street in Niles, according to Niles police.
The police departments for Niles, Skokie, and Morton Grove said they worked with the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force Major Crash Assist Team to investigate the crashes.
