38-year old cyclist killed in Palm Springs

Evidently, we couldn’t escape November without another cycling fatality after all.

Details are still sparse, but The Desert Sun reports that 38-year old La Quinta resident Corey Holley was hit by a car at South Palm Canyon Drive at Avenida Palmera in Palm Springs at 9:07 pm Friday.

According to the paper, Holley was in the right lane when he was struck by a southbound Ford Thunderbird. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:20 pm.

The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators; drug or alcohol use is not suspected to have been a factor.

No other details are available at this time.

There’s no word on whether Holley was riding with or against traffic, or if he may have been crossing the roadway when he was hit. And no information on how he was dressed or whether he was using lights after dark.

There’s also no mention of whether the driver may have been speeding, using a hand-held cell phone, or been otherwise distracted or driving carelessly in some way.

All we know is that a rider who should have been visible to those around him evidently wasn’t, for whatever reason.

And now a man is dead because of it.

This is the 69th bicycling fatality in the seven-county Southern California region this year, one behind the total of 70 for all of last year. It’s also the 12th cycling fatality in Riverside County, which is one more than last year.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Holley and all his loved ones.

4 comments

  1. JD says:

    Our prayers go up for the family and friends of the victim, and all the bicycling community.

  2. Fred says:

    I, too, pray for the friends and family.

    You provide an invaluable service to the cycling community of S. CA, and I don’t know how you do it as it’s emotionally challenging.

    You’re highly appreciated.

    Is it possible if you can note the speed limit on the roads of the deaths? Do you have this?

    Do you have a spreadsheet with all this info on it (S. CA cycling collisions?) If so, would you like to share?

    You probably know this, but I have found, by looking at Australian data, that the only variable that is reliable to predict whether someone will live or die after a collision while riding a bicycle is speed.

    I wonder if this is true for CA, too.

    If we are going to get serious about safety, it would be nice to see what truly predicts unsafe conditions.

    Thanks for all that you have done.

    • bikinginla says:

      I wish I could offer more information on things like speed limits, road conditions, etc., but that is seldom contained in the news and police reports I usually base my reports on.

      And you’re right, speed seems to be the primary determining factor on the survivability of bike and pedestrian collisions. I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that’s why San Diego and Orange County have such a high rate of bicycling deaths compared to Los Angeles. Too many streets in both counties are designed like high-speed freeways, allowing drivers to reach freeway speeds inappropriate for surface streets.

      I keep my fatality stats in a Filemaker 8 format, but it can be exported to Excel, PDF or other formats. I’m more than happy to share it; I assume I can send it to the address you used to post this comment?

  3. Fred says:

    Yes, if you don’t mind.

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