SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – It’s been almost a year since a Central Florida cyclist lost her life doing what she loved.
In May 2023, Lisa Audley was hit by an SUV while riding her bike on Markham Woods Road in Lake Mary. Audley died from her injuries that August.
Now, her friends she used to ride with have put what’s called a “ghost bike” where the crash happened. The ghost bike is intended to raise awareness surrounding cyclists’ safety and to honor Audley’s memory.
“I think the bike is a good representation of her, too,” Kyle Markel said. “Colorful, beautiful.”
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Audley’s friends biked down Markham Woods Road Saturday morning to place the ghost bike where the crash occurred.
“A ghost bike is sort of the image of the bicycle of course,” Kyle Markel said. “So, it’s an older bike or just any kind of bike and we spray it all white and it’s to bring the visual of it — you see the bike, you know it’s there and it’s there for a purpose.”
That purpose? To not only memorialize Audley, but to raise awareness surrounding bicyclist safety.
“I hope people drive by and look at this and say, ‘What is that for?’ and then realize it’s in memory of somebody‚” Audley’s friend, Susan Van Bernum, said. “If you do a lot of driving, you see them in spots where people were hit and killed.”
Van Bernum said she met Audley in 2015.
“We all started riding together as a group rides, met so many great people and we do a weekly ride from the shop,” Van Bernum said. “Lisa loved to ride that bike.”
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