Gainesville woman killed riding a bicycle in Levy County
September 3, 2022
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
LEVY COUNTY, Fla. – A 63-year-old Gainesville woman was killed this morning while riding a bike in Levy County.
According to a release from Florida Highway Patrol, the woman was riding a bicycle near the intersection of State Road 24 and SW 3rd Street at 4:40 a.m. today when a BMW sedan, driven by a 31-year-old High Springs man, collided with the rear of the bicycle. The bicyclist was pronounced dead at the scene.
It’s too bad that more important factual details aren’t released when these crashes occur, or after the investigation is completed. Typically, this is all we get, although sometimes they tell us if the cyclist was wearing a helmet.
It would be helpful to know the cause of the crash, in hopes of learning from it, but all we can do is shake our heads, and maybe make assumptions, which may or may not be true.
When your hit by a car at Hwy speeds it doesn’t matter if you have helmet on or not
Absolutely agree. Still, they usually feel like that’s an important detail to mention in the news reports… 🙄
A bike helmet will help you the most on neighborhood roads and paved bike trails- exactly the places where people mindlessly wear them the least…
Riding her bike @ 4:40am is more dangerous than riding after sunrise.
We just don’t know the details at all.
Why was she riding then?
Was she riding an epic cross country or state ride/race, or was she riding to work, because riding a bike was her only form of transportation?
Was she with others? (Epic bike ride, etc.) Or solo?
Did she have lights on her bike?
Was she, and/or the BMW driver riding/driving under the influence?
I’m not blaming the Alachua Chronicle, but the details are rarely shared in such a way that we, the public, can learn anything from what happened…
As a cyclist, I would say, yes and no…
If you have good lights on your bike, you’re almost as visible as a vehicle in the dark at that time of day.
They make great bike lights that are very visible.
It’s easier to see the lights in the dark than it is in the dawn, or especially during early morning after sunrise, driving eastbound, when the rising sun is in your eyes…
I have driven on SR-24 in the early morning/dawn hours, and an amazing number of vehicles are driving without their headlights on…
(On a 2 lane road…
Imagine trying to pass a slower moving vehicle then. Don’t do it!! You might not see the incoming vehicle until a second before you hit it…)
Same on Williston Rd…/SR-121.
I wish they reported more details about this tragic crash, so we could understand how it happened, and possibly learn from it.
Things like what direction were the cyclist and the driver going, whether the cyclist had good lights, witness statements, if any, (likely not, at that time of day,) and whether DUI was an issue for either the cyclist or the BMW driver would be important details, for sure…
Riding a bicycle at 4 am? No healthy. Sorry for the lady.
she was riding her bike @ 4:40am in the morning…it’s pitch black out then…it’s dangerous to be on a rural road in the dark…it’s hard to see Deer, etc.
If you ride your bike at 4 AM, excellent lighting is MUST. I have a vest with battery powered LED’s that looks like a moving Christmas tree in the dark–I’d recommend something like this.
Awesome, I need one of these vest ( I don’t ride in the dark) in the event I’m out a little pass sunset.