Grieving Omaha family seeks answers after motorcyclist killed in crash

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – A grieving Omaha family is searching for answers after a loved one died in a motorcycle accident.

They believe a long-time driver with a reputation for safety has become the victim of a hit-and-run. The police can’t say any more details yet.

73-year-old Jim Jacobs was a motorcyclist most of his life and wore a motto on his head.

“He knows that to be safe you have to be seen,” said Jacobs’ daughter Cassie.

Holding the helmet her father was wearing when drivers stopped to help him, Cassie was lying on the sidewalk on southbound 72nd Street, near Pacific Street.

Jim Jacobs died about a week later.

A passerby took a photo of the scene from a distance, but Patty Jacobs hopes an eyewitness will provide more details about the incident.

“Bright sunlight, beautiful day, busy street, someone had to see something. I need to know, I just need to know,” Patty said.

Businesses near the busy intersection likely have surveillance cameras, but the crime scene could be in a blind spot.

“We’ve been searching the area for video and are obviously still in the process of investigating it, but we haven’t come across it, so any witnesses or anyone who saw it would be very helpful to the investigation,” OPD Lt. Danny Flynn said from Omaha, traffic police said.

This will hopefully lead to further clues as to the exact cause of the crash.

“We don’t know exactly what happened, so whether they just saw it or whether they saw something that happened right after the accident,” said Lt. Flynn.

Traffic investigators want to review an initial report from the day of the accident that a dark SUV struck Jim Jacobs’ motorcycle and left the scene.

Jim’s favorite color, High Viz Yellow, and more obvious than on the helmet he wore, the family missing him now wonders how anyone could have missed him wearing that helmet.

Cassie hears Jim Jacobs preaching defensive driving since he gave her a motorcycle years ago and believes another driver is responsible for her father’s death.

“With that helmet you couldn’t miss him in traffic, you could see him coming from a mile away,” Cassie said. “There must be someone who saw something, anything. I don’t know if he was hit, that’s just the way it is. “We need answers.”

What family members know is that Jim Jacobs loved to work in his garage on anything with an engine, such as his 1979 Chevy pickup, which he was unable to restore.

“It’s really difficult, yes, but it will continue, we must. He wouldn’t have it any other way,” said Jim’s brother Matt.

A family brought closer together by the unresolved death of the man she loved and who loved horseback riding.

Although hit-and-run is possible, police need more witness information to prove it. Damage to the motorcycle is not enough to determine the cause.

CAN YOU HELP?

Anyone who witnessed the crash or saw a dark-colored SUV driving away, possibly without stickers, should call the Omaha Police Department’s Traffic Investigation Unit.

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