BikinginLA

It’s happened again.

Yet another bike rider has been left to die on the side of the road by a murderous coward.

In a story that flew under the radar earlier this week, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported that an unidentified cyclist had been killed in a hit-and-run Sunday night.

According to the paper, the CHP was attempting to identify the victim, who was apparently struck from behind while riding west on Cajalco Road west of Wood Road in Meade Valley; however, Google Maps places that location in Perris, instead. No word on the time of the collision.

The driver fled the scene without stopping. Police are looking for the driver of a 2008-2014 Ford car with front end damage on the passenger side, with a possible broken headlight.

The victim was identified today as Duane Darling, a member of the Redlands Water Bottle Transit Company, a recreational bike club based in Redlands. He was reportedly on a 60-mile ride when he was killed.

No other information is available at this time.

A street view shows a two lane, undivided highway with a shoulder on each side; there would have been nowhere to go if he had seen or heard the car coming up behind him.

Anyone with information with information is urged to call CHP investigators at 951/901-8401, or the Riverside office at 951/637-8000.

Once they find the driver, he — or she — should face a second-degree murder charge for making a conscious decision to leave the victim to die.

This is the 50th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth in Riverside County; that compares with 41 in SoCal this time last year, and four in the County.

If the crash did occur in Perris, it is the fourth fatal bike collision in the city in the last 36 months.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Duane Darling and all his friends and lived ones.

Thanks to Dorothy Wong and Lester Walters for the heads-up.