On the Northwest Side of Chicago, an off-duty Chicago police officer lost his life in a motorcycle crash Friday afternoon, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Cameron Karshna, 31, a Chicago resident and a police officer for the past 4 years, was riding his bike in the 7500 block of West Touhy Avenue when a pickup truck failed to yield when turning left and struck the motorcycle. He was riding a Honda motorcycle and was hit by a Ford 2002 F-250 pickup truck.
The motorcyclist was taken to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge and pronounced dead several hours later. The driver of the pickup, a 36 year old Chicago resident, was reportedly ticketed with failure to yield and not wearing a seat belt.
As of yesterday, the officer was in the process of recovering from a work related injury. He had been hurt in an on-duty altercation with a prisoner, and he was on his way home from physical therapy when the crash occurred. He was part of the Department’s Town Hall District Tactical Unit.
According to the NHTSA, over the past ten years motorcycle fatalities are on the rise in the United States. Nationwide, there were 5,154 deaths in 2007, up from 2,116 deaths in 1997. They also report that the fatality rate for a motorcyclist is 5.5 times greater than the occupant of a car when involved in a crash.