By Domenic Poli
A local association plans to host a vigil and placement of a memorial “ghost” bicycle on Saturday morning to honor a member of the cycling community who died following a collision earlier this month.
The Greenfield Bicycle Coalition invites people to pay their respects to David Tasgal, a 72-year-old Greenfield resident who was riding his bicycle on Bernardston Road on Oct. 12, when he was struck by a pickup truck driven by Teresa Conti and suffered fatal injuries. The vigil is scheduled for the collision site, adjacent to the Meineke Car Care Center at 440 Bernardston Road at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Alden Booth, who helped form the bicycle coalition about a year and a half ago, said the vigil will also be a way for the public to show its support for safer roads for cyclists.
Booth said he met Tasgal years ago when he gave the man tennis lessons. Tasgal was later the music teacher to all of Booth’s daughters at the Brattleboro Music Center in Vermont.
“I go way back with him,” Booth said. “But I hadn’t seen him for a number of years. So, it was a real shock.”
He said the vigil will allow people to have a few moments of quiet thought and the “ghost” bicycle is a tradition in which an old bike is painted white for a cycling community member who has died on the road.
“There are a lot of people with big vehicles out there and they just don’t see the cyclists or they don’t care,” Booth said, mentioning that he was cycling the other day and a driver flipped him the middle finger. “There are a lot of people who just don’t believe bikes should be on the road.”
Booth said this has a been a difficult year for the local cycling community. Chester Tela, 67, of Turners Falls, died after being struck while riding north in the breakdown lane near Wapping Road in July. There is a “ghost” bicycle near that collision site along Route 5 & 10.
