At number 194 on Ciudad de Barcelona Avenue in Madrid, the place where home delivery driver Mario Clemente lost his life on April 20 when he was working after being hit by a taxi, a white bicycle has honored his memory since yesterday .
There she has been placed by several dozen cyclists and members of the Pedalibre cycling association, who have marched from the central Plaza del Callao to this point in the Retiro district to say a final goodbye.
The bicycle, painted completely white and decorated with four carnations, has been chained to a traffic light located on the island that separates the aforementioned avenue as an altar and as a way of denouncing “something that should never have happened,” according to the organizers of the event. .
Mario's is the ninth white bicycle that has been placed in the city of Madrid since 2010. Before that came those of Ronald, Alberto, Javier or Juanjo, firefighters, deliverymen, walkers and cyclists who also lost their lives when they were on wheels.
Mario, who would have turned 30 on May 5 and father of three children, had arrived in Madrid a few months ago to work and be able to send money to his three children (between one and 11 years old) and the family he left on the other side of the Atlantic. In Spain he lived with his sister Samary, who did not attend the tribute to “not having the strength.”
However, he has written a message that has been read by one of the members of the association in which he has remembered his brother as a "noble, kind, dreamer and with a positive attitude towards life" man.
“Mario, you were a son, father, friend, brother, accomplice. You were a light for those of us who knew you and that light went out with your departure. You left emptiness, silences, broken hearts, questions without answers, pending plans and dreams to fulfill,” Samary lamented in a letter.
Their relatives in Venezuela have not been able to attend the memorial event either, but have asked the organizers to send them photographs and videos of the emotional moment.
This is what the president of Pedalibre, Miguel de Andrés, explained to Efe, who along with his colleagues has followed the case since the day of the accident and is in contact with the family to raise funds to be able to repatriate the body to his native Venezuela, a process that is underway.
In one of the speeches that have been read at the tribute, another representative of the association has denounced the vulnerability to which cyclists are exposed when they circulate through the capital, especially the 'riders' or home delivery food delivery people who carry "the load on the back and the risk on the pedals.”
“It is a very hard way to earn a living, often the only possible one for those who, like Mario, have arrived in Madrid in search of a better future for yourselves and your families,” he said in front of several home delivery drivers, colleagues of the deceased. .
The accident occurred at 5 a.m. on April 20 and after the taxi hit, he went into cardiorespiratory arrest. Although the Samur-Civil Protection paramedics managed to revive him at first, he ended up dying.
The Municipal Police opened an investigation for reckless homicide against the taxi driver, who tested negative for alcohol and drugs.
According to data from the Madrid City Council, in the last five years, including Mario, six cyclists have died in traffic accidents.
