Safe cycling advocate remembered

Service for Iris Stagner

Service for Iris Stagner is 2 p.m. Friday at Indian Creek Baptist Church. County offices will close for the day at noon. See her full obituary on page 3.

Too many races named “Memorial” ...

Editor’s note: Following is a Facebook post by Andy Hollinger after learning of the death of fellow cycling enthusiast Iris Stagner. Stagner worked closely with Hollinger in helping coordinate and put on the annual Mineral Wells Stage Race and on issues concerning cyclists’ safety on the roadways. Hollinger is editor in chief of The Racing Post.

Too many races named “Memorial” ...

I keep writing and re-writing this. I can’t see through my glasses. I keep seeing that tiny lady in the cubby-hole of an office at the top of PP Courthouse and strategizing about how to make Rolling Enclosure at MWSR a reality and how, with the new lake and all, we could somehow save Cherry Pie Hill for an event ... and ... and ... Remember the year it rained ... no, I mean REALLY RAINED ... she was out on a corner the whole day.
And now another one. James Bailey, Megan Baab both from automobiles. Now this.
All I can think about is “just be careful.”
Sure it’s hard to see us sometimes, sure “we’re (bicyclists) in the way” ... and in the driving world of Listening, eating, smoking, cell phoning and just gettin’ down the road, we’re something they’d rather not have to deal with ...” We’re slow erratic and vulnerable.
Well, the “We” and “They” have got to stop. All of us drive and that car is a moving, loaded weapon.
Now – again – one of “us” is dead. I can’t say for sure, but I’ll bet it comes out to be an “accident.” Accidents DO happen. But, damn, do they HAVE to happen.
This is not a time for anger, righteous or not, it’s a time when WE (the bicycle world) needs to make sure ALL of our driving friends take the time to pay attention. If the sun is in your eyes, slow down, drive with caution ... if it’s foggy, why not slow down and pay attention ... if ... if ... if ...
Someday I’d like to have a race that lives the life of races over the years without the word “memorial” to it. Help me out here. Just talk to your friends at work, at the gym, at the PTA, at Church ... “yeah, we’re in the way, and yeah, sometimes we act a bit differently than you’d expect (or want) but we’re living, breathing people. All we ask is that YOU drive as if MY life depended on it ... because it does.”
Out.

Related Photos

Iris Stagner, right, rides alongside Neil Reddick on SH 337.
In the summer of 2008, Iris Stagner, left, cheers as Texas Department of Transportation workers install a ‘Share the Road’ caution sign on FM Road 4 south of Palo Pinto. Stagner worked with state and local officials to obtain the sign reminding drivers of the possible presence of cyclists on ‘Cherry Pie Hill.’ File Photo

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September 19, 2012

Safe cycling advocate remembered

Friends, colleagues shocked after cycling enthusiast who worked to make roads safer killed while riding Monday

Anonymous Mineral Wells Index The Mineral Wells Index Wed Sep 19, 2012, 08:16 AM CDT

By LIBBY CLUETT and CHRIS AGEE | lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com

cagee@mineralwellsindex.com

The death of avid Mineral Wells cyclist and Palo Pinto County employee Iris Harrison Stagner Monday evening, when she was hit from behind by a passing driver while on a solo training ride, has left those who know her in shock.

Stagner, 54, was killed around 5:30 p.m. while riding her bicycle westbound on U.S. Highway 180, along the westernmost portion of the Brazos River bridge, when a pickup truck, also westbound, struck her from behind.

Department of Public Safety Trooper Gary Rozzell said Stagner was about 1.8 miles west of Mineral Wells when a 2005 Chevrolet truck driven by a county resident in his mid-70s hit and killed her. The driver stopped, officials said.

Rozzell said Stagner was wearing a bicycle helmet. Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace Bobby Hart pronounced her dead at the scene at 5:49 p.m.

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