Ehlinger said the accident occurred just 10 days after Doylestown's annual Ride of Silence, part of a worldwide event calling attention to cyclists killed by motorists each year.
"This does hit home," said Ehlinger.
Ghost bikes are white-painted bikes that are memorials for dead cyclists. First used in St. Louis in 2003, they are now in more than 150 locations around the world, according to the website ghostbikes.org.
Chapman, 66, a textbook writer who lived in the Queens borough of New York City, was among a dozen or so cyclists taking part in the annual trip, known as the New Hope Ride, that was planned by the Fast and Fabulous Cycle Club, a gay and lesbian club in New York.
After heading south through New Jersey, Chapman stopped in Lambertville, N.J., where he helped another cyclist fix a flat tire, and then crossed the Delaware into Bucks County, where ultimately the riders would spend the weekend at Lake Nockamixon before heading back to New York.
But about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 28, as Chapman stopped to check directions on Route 413 near the border of Plumstead and Buckingham Townships, he was struck by a white pickup that sped away.
David Roycroft, a friend of Chapman's who was part of the caravan, said he had fallen a bit behind Chapman and was just catching up when he saw Chapman standing on the shoulder of the road looking at his cue sheet. All of a sudden, he said, he saw the pickup truck driving "erratically" in the direction of an oncoming vehicle and then swerve toward Chapman.
The driver was going about 60 m.p.h., Roycroft said, and knocked Chapman into the drainage ditch. "It just kept going. It didn't even slow down," he said.
