Witness: ‘I close my eyes, I see him getting hit’

A 25-year-old dirt bike rider lying in the street after being dragged 20 feet was able to call his friend and tell him he was hit by a car before dying Friday night in West Town.

The wreck happened about 9:35 p.m. in the 100 block of North Western Avenue, near Washington Boulevard, police said.

The Galewood neighborhood man had been riding on a sidewalk south on Western to regroup with other bikers nearby when he disregarded the red light while crossing Washington and was hit by a westbound car, according to a traffic crash report of the incident.

The man was dragged about 20 feet, and the car fled the scene west on Washington, a witness told police.

According to the crash report, the man was able to call his 31-year-old friend who was part of the biker group and tell him where he was and that he’d been hit by a car.

Cleo Dinkins, 58, was headed to the expressway to get to his South Side home. He was stopped at the red light, heading southbound on Western.

“I heard him coming,” Dinkins said of the dirt bike rider. “It was one of those little bitty motorcycles. They don’t have lights, no horns.”

The dirt bike rider was

“flying down the street” when a car that also appeared to be speeding on Washington hit him.

“It acted like it might stop, but then it kept going,” Dinkins said of the car.

Everything happened “so fast,” and Dinkins said he has been an “emotional wreck.”

“I couldn’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see him getting hit.” The victim’s friends got there momentarily and began “screaming and hollering.”

The 25-year-old, whose name was not immediately being made public, was pronounced dead less than half an hour later at Stroger Hospital, police said.