Biker identified with iPod: Adam Finley

Turns out that the 30 year old guy, Adam Finley, who was hit and killed on his bike near Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis last Thursday — and was identified only because the police worked with Apple Security First Tech Apple experts to identify him from the iPod he was carrying — was a blogger and TV Squad is reprinting some of his articles in memoriam.

It also brought back bad memories since I was hit by a car jogging on that exact same intersection when I was 29 years old, carrying no identification and listening to a Sony FM Walkman at the time.

Site of Collision (click for larger view)

A drunk was making a left turn westbound Lake Street and fortunately was going very slowly. I turned and saw him at the last minute simply coming at me and it gave me time to leap up in the air, landing on the hood of his car. I slid off, he hit the brakes and the rear tire ended up six inches from my head.

Others snagged his keys and kept him there until police arrived, and I was just damn lucky I wasn’t killed — it just tore my jacket and gave me a few bumps and bruises. Adam’s untimely death — though I didn’t know him or read his blog — really has given me pause about how quickly things can go the other way, how lucky I was and how I’ve carried identification ever since when I’m out running or biking.

Take a moment and think about how interesting it is to live in a time when digital breadcrumb trails can be left by people like Adam in blogs, podcasts, MySpace pages…or by you…and how good it is to remember someone partially by the contributions they’ve made. I think often about preserving my blog and podcasts to be discovered by some interested descendant of mine who might wonder who I was and what was happening when I was alive. In a small way, I now have a glimpse into Adam Finley whose life stopped far too early.