GoFundMe established for bike crash victim

Taylor Mehalcik of McKeesport leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter.

The family of Taylor Mehalcik, who was tragically killed June 11 after being struck by an SUV while riding her bike in McKeesport, has created a GoFundMe to help cover costs.

Mehalcik was a single mother of 6-year-old Alaya Savage, who attends school in the McKeesport Area district. Mehalcik’s mother, Kristie Braun, said Mehalcik was on her way to pick up Alaya, who was coming home from camp.

Braun said she was just getting home from work when she received a call from the bus company, stating that Alaya had not been picked up. Braun said Mehalcik always picked up Alaya, so she knew something was wrong and went to McKeesport police.

Braun tried to file a missing persons report, but says she was told to sit down and wait. Braun said she waited two hours at the police department until she found out what happened to her daughter.

Police told Braun that witnesses said her daughter was riding her bike erratically and hit a bump, which led to the accident. Braun said she doesn’t believe that was the case.

Braun said Mehalcik didn’t have a driver’s license and had been riding her bike for a long time. There was a car shop near where the incident took place, and Braun asked if anyone had observed the accident.

“A really nice gentleman came down to me, and he started crying,” Braun said. “He walked down with me, and he showed me exactly what happened. He said she wasn’t riding erratically. She was doing maybe 10 miles an hour. She saw the bump. He’s not sure if she tried to go around it or if she did actually hit it, but the car was so close to her and on more towards her side than even the middle of the lane, that there was no chance that she wouldn’t have gotten hit.”

Braun said she reached out to the Allegheny County Detectives and was told that they had spoken to the McKeesport Police Department.

“They (Allegheny County Detectives) thought McKeesport (Police Department) had talked to the body shop,” Braun said. “They didn’t know that they hadn’t gone there. They did see a little snippet of a video from a Ring doorbell from the house that is directly in front of where she wrecked. Well, there’s a lot more than just that snippet. He’s going to give it to my law firm that I work for.”

Braun doesn’t understand how an accident could be blamed on a bike rider or a pedestrian, especially in her daughter’s case, where she was supposedly biking “erratically.”

Mehalcik and Alaya had been living with Braun and her husband, who has terminal cancer. Melissa Borrelli, Braun’s sister, created a Go-FundMe page to raise funds for Braun and Alaya.

Borrelli knew some of the financial burden would fall on Braun to take care of Alaya, so she believed it would be helpful to create a GoFundMe to raise funds.

“Alaya, her daughter, who is just 6 years old, she is like the most angelic child I’ve ever met,” Borrelli said. “And I have three kids, and I have nieces and nephews, and she, I call her my little angel because she’s the sweetest kid.”

The GoFundMe page for Alaya and Braun can be found at https://gofund. me/5b8254f3.