Christina Riddle lifted up each pant leg as she addressed a crowd of almost 20 cyclists Wednesday night. The brace wrapped around each ankle is a constant reminder of her bicycle accident. She and bicyclists from around the Lansing area gathered for the fourth Ride of Silence at Haslett Middle School, 1535 Franklin St. in Haslett, to commemorate those who have died or been injured while riding a bicycle — and she is included on that list.

On Aug. 21, 1999, Riddle was riding along Mount Hope Road just east of Hagadorn on the way to her volunteer job at the League of Michigan Bicyclists, when a driver in a Volkswagen Beetle hit her from behind and then deserted the scene of the accident.

"I heard a crash — next thing I knew, I was in the air, and then I woke up with a doctor over me," the Okemos resident said.

Now, seven years later, Riddle bikes on an easy rider and believes there's a reason she lived.

"I began to realize how much more needed to be done for drivers to keep cyclists safe," she said.

As a regional director for the League of Michigan Bicyclists, Riddle helps in the effort to make the entire state aware of cyclists on the road.

The first Ride of Silence took place in 2003 after Larry Schwartz, a marathon cyclist from Dallas was killed while on one of his many rides.

"We want to remember those who have been killed by riding, but we also want to get the word out that we are cyclists, and we have the right to the road. The more coverage we get, perhaps the more lives we can save," said Judith Jolly, Schwartz's former fiancee.

Jolly met Schwartz in October 1996 when she moved to Dallas.

"The second day I was in the area, I went to a bike club meeting, and I met him there," she said.

The two of them both enjoyed biking longer trails.

"He offered to show me around, places to ride," she said. "We traveled quite a bit together. We biked across the country … (and) went to Europe and did some cycling there."

But in May 2003, Schwartz was hit by a school bus.

"It was just him and a bus on a country road … it wasn't crowded," said Chris Phelan, a friend of Schwartz's and founder of the Ride of Silence. "The bus driver was approaching Larry, and supposedly the mirror on the bus hit him in the back of the head and killed him."

Phelan sent out e-mails to fellow cyclists about a memorial ride at White Rock Lake in Dallas for Schwartz after his funeral, but did not expect what would happen next.

"My wife and I went, and as I came over this hill, there were about 1,000 cyclists there," he said.

The Ride of Silence at White Rock Lake has over 2,500 cyclists who participate, and it has become an international event.

The ride covers five continents, has eight overseas sites and a total of 268 sites all together, said Lenny Provencher, a member of the Tri-County Bicycle Association and the initiator of the Haslett location for the ride.

In 2004, there were 21 fatal bicycle crashes in the state of Michigan and a total of 2,246 bicycle crashes, according to the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.

"Because of this ride, we've become a clearing house for people who do get killed," Phelan said. "People don't know what to do or where to go. I can't tell you how many people tell me the same story … it's cyclists and motorists on the road. It's the cyclists who are killed, and the motorists just drive on."

Bicyclists hope that drivers will pay attention when driving, respect the cyclists and if the motorist is unable to pass the cyclist, just wait.

"What they don't know is that bikes were here first," Riddle said.

Mara S. Deutch can be reached deutchma@msu.edu.