Marijana Mohammad loved to learn.

The Hamilton woman, originally from Bosnia, converted to Islam only a few years ago and was anxious to learn everything she could about her new religion.

“She was learning Koran online from somebody abroad,” said family friend Shan Malik.

Mohammad, 37, was heading to work early last Wednesday morning when she was struck by a trailer being pulled by a dump truck after she stepped off the sidewalk with her bike to cross Barton Street.

“For whatever reason, she stepped in between the truck and the front of the (trailer),” Hamilton Police Detective Constable Matt Hewko said at the time.

No charges were laid against the 65-year-old truck driver — who police said had a green light as he drove westbound through the intersection of Barton and the northbound Red Hill Valley Parkway off-ramp.

It is the city’s 12th traffic fatality this year.

Mohammad, (Romanic before her marriage two-and-a-half years ago to husband Mohammad Anwar), was working short-term stints through a temporary employment agency, Malik said. She had gone two weeks without working prior to Wednesday.

“If she had not got the call for the job, she would have not died. If she had not taken the bicycle, perhaps she would have not died,” he said.

Mohammad and Anwar had only one car — he took the car to Burlington Wednesday morning and she took the bicycle, as was often the arrangement.

Malik said his friend is devastated by his wife’s death.

“He was about to break down and collapse at the grave,” he said. Friends have rallied around Anwar in support since Wednesday.

“She was an excellent neighbour, the neighbours really had more tears in their eyes than (even) the friends,” Malik said of Mohammad.

A funeral service took place at Hamilton Mountain Mosque on Friday, following prayers. Burial was at the Chapel Hill Cemetery in Stoney Creek.