Valladolid (EFE).- Hundreds of bike fans, some 450 according to the Municipal Police, have toured the center of Valladolid this Sunday to ask for more prudence and respect for drivers and to honor the cyclist Estela Domínguez, the 19-year-old years old who was hit by a heavy vehicle when she was training in a polygon in the province of Salamanca, on February 9.
The march began with a rally in the Plaza Mayor, which was also attended by family and friends of Estela, including her father, the former professional cyclist Juan Carlos Domínguez, and members of the Municipal Corporation, including the mayor of the city. , Oscar Puente.
Domínguez thanked the presence of the numerous cycling clubs and the two-wheeled fans at this concentration because they “give strength” and has indicated that he continues to see “many people” who continue with their phones, with WhatsApp, carelessness that they may have and to those he wants to direct.
vehicles as weapons
The former rider of the Kelme, iBanesto.com, Phonak or Vitalicio teams has acknowledged that in Spain “cyclists are more respected” than in other places, but he recalled that “the car or truck is a weapon like a shotgun and a Carelessness can steal a person’s life.”
“In this case, it was my daughter and she has stolen our lives as well,” Domínguez lamented, to ask the bicycle users to take extreme precautions because “even if they are right, if they run ahead of you there is no remedy.”
For his part, the mayor of the city has affirmed that this march has a double meaning: on the one hand, the memory of a person “so young that he lost his life a few days ago and for whom we are still in great pain” and, on the other, “to send a message of respect for motorists in relation to the most fragile people who are pedestrians and cyclists.”
Remember Estela Domínguez
“One has to go with all five senses when taking a machine that weighs 2,000 kilos or 28,000 kilos, because when the person who suffers the impact is a pedestrian or cyclist, the result is almost always death or very serious injuries,” he warned. the alderman
Puente has affirmed that it is difficult for him to “understand that these things occur with the number of awareness campaigns that there are” and has reiterated to drivers that they think of the most vulnerable road users.
The act has filled the center of Valladolid with bright colors, where a response has been delivered by the priest Eugenio Oterino and different messages of support and affection to the family of Estela Domínguez and close friends, who have come to read a poem in her memory .
A minute of silence has preceded the departure of the route, which has cut several main arteries of Valladolid for about half as long as Paseo de Zorrilla or Avenida de Salamanca and which has concluded with the reading of a manifesto and a floral offering in the monolith in honor of those who died on bicycles. EFE
