Alex Blacio was everyone’s “rock.”
He was a steady presence in his family, according to his relatives. The teen played volleyball through middle and high school — becoming the captain of the varsity volleyball team at Lake View High School last year, where he was happy to play wherever he was needed — and would often meet up with his middle school friends to play at open gyms.
Monday, the 16-year-old was riding an e-scooter northbound in the 4100 block of North Western Avenue around 3:35 p.m. when he lost control and was hit by a tractor-trailer, Chicago police said in a statement. He was taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
It was his third day at his first job, and though he hadn’t been scheduled for work, he was eager to pick up another shift to help out his family, according to his older sister, Andrea Blacio.
“He showed so much love, he was always there for everybody,” she said. “He was such a goofy boy and that’s how we’ll always remember him.”
Wednesday night, dozens of loved ones and community members packed into the living room of the boy’s aunt’s house in the Hermosa neighborhood to pray, sing and remember his life.
A table with photos of the teen and bouquets of flowers sat at the front of the room where his parents addressed the group.
“He was my everything,” his mother told the group, through tears, in Spanish. “I love you.”
“It’s not something anybody is gonna get over,” his older sister said later. “We lost our sibling, and my parents lost our kid. … But seeing that he touched so many hearts is helping us.”
Scooter-related crashes have increased alongside a rise in ridership over the past few years, prompting a safety campaign from the city. The Chicago Fire Department responded to nearly 200 e-scooter-related incidents in 2022. That number had more than tripled by 2025.
Hours before the vigil, a minor was also critically injured after being hit by a truck while riding an e-bike in suburban Crystal Lake, requiring a helicopter transport for “life-threatening injuries,” according to Crystal Lake officials.
Even so, e-scooters have grown increasingly popular among students of Lane Tech College Prep, less than a mile south of where the crash occurred.
So far this year, two other teens have been fatally struck by drivers while riding e-scooters in the city: 17-year-old Astrid Alexandra Carrillo Noguera and 15-year-old Violet Harris were both killed in accidents on the South Side nearly a month apart this spring.
Six people on scooters or bikes were hit and killed by cars between January and June of this year, compared to one in the same span last year. The number of traffic deaths — which the city had vowed to eliminate by this year — remains largely where it was 10 years ago after a brief pandemic increase.