Yet another bike rider has been murdered by a heartless driver who didn’t have the basic human decency to stop.
KCBS-2 reports the victim was struck by the driver of a white Jeep around 11 pm on PCH at Sunset Blvd. However, they add that it was near Temescal Canyon, suggesting that the wreck occurred somewhere in between the two streets.
No information is currently available about the victim, who died at the scene.
The driver fled following the crash, with the front bumper hanging off the vehicle.
No other details are available at this time.
According to SWITRS data, the brief section of PCH through Los Angeles remains one of the most dangerous areas of the coast highway, with 158 bicycle-involved crashes in the last 12 years, second only to Long Beach. Malibu is third with 128.
The section of PCH that runs through Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Malibu has been the site of nine bicycling fatalities in that time, including this one, making it one of the deadliest roads for cyclists in Southern California. At least three of those deaths have been the result of hit-and-runs.
Malibu is currently working on safety improvements to PCH through the city, while Caltrans has promised to eventually widen PCH to provide shoulders through the section where this crash presumably occurred.
This is the 55th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 22nd in Los Angeles County; it’s also the seventh in the City of Los Angeles.
Note: An earlier version of this story contained the wrong total for bicycling fatalities in Los Angeles County this year; it has been corrected to reflect the accurate total.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his or her loved ones.
Thanks to Brian Nilsen for the heads-up. And thanks to Ed Ryder for the stats on PCH.
Our prayers go up for the family and friends of the victim.
That section of PCH is horrible for bike riding. There is very little or no paved shoulder in many places. I don’t understand why, with all of the bike traffic on that section of PCH, a good paved shoulder or bike lane wasn’t built a long time ago.
There were plans to extend the bike path on the beach past that point, almost all the way to Malibu. But a group of bike riders fought attempts to get funding for the project, and killed it.
Why would bike riders oppose funding for a project like that?
Good question. I never really understood their objections; they were more worried about how it would look than the lives it might save.
You can catch up on the backstory here and here.
Riding on the “shoulder” is about the worse place to be on PCH, and not only because of the rocks, broken glass, and pavement cracks.
Cyclists on the shoulder are perceptually invisible to motorists — the motorists are focused on the road directly in front.
I routinely ride in small, medium, and large groups on PCH, and we ride in middle of the #2 lane. Many, perhaps most, of us also use _extremely_ bright flashing headlights & tail lights.
There is very little “drama”. Cars see us, and smoothly change lanes to pass. The LA Sheriff’s deputies, after a long campaign, are now accustomed to us, and mostly support this cycling style on PCH.
I think bike lights during daytime are a _huge_ safety improvement — drivers now make eye contact, or stop at side streets, whereas before they wouldn’t see me.
As personal injury attorney Seth Davidosn has noted at his website:
“Among the countless cyclists I’ve represented for being hit by cars, only two were ever hit while Christmas treed [ie, bike lights]. That’s right. Except for two people, all the others were hit while riding without lights”
11:00 on PCH and Sunset? Having ridden over 100k miles over the last 20 years, that’s the last place I’d be at 11:00 PM.
I’ve already been run down once by a lunatic women hell bent on my destruction, but riding on PCH anywhere near Gladstones is unsafe and just plain stupid.
May God grant eternal rest unto the soul of the faithful departed and his/her family.
It’s always possible that the victim was an employee at one of the restaurants who needed their bike to get to and from work. Or just someone who enjoyed riding at night.
This was my brother his name is Neville Williams we just found out about his death Feb 18, 2017 my mother received a letter in the mail from the Los Angeles coroner’s office. He is from Memphis, Tn we had not spoken to him in roughly 6 years since he left memphis for the second time. He stop contacting us so we had no idea of his where abouts he was always a guy who stay to him self. We know nothing but have so many questions was he working? did he have friends or girlfriend? how was he living or where? what was his state of mind? why was he out riding that time of night? so many questions and no answers. I guess i’m asking for help because I have been able, to only find out so much online and I have even been searching for him online since he’said been missing from us. Haven’t had the means to visit Los Angeles to search for him and if so we wouldn’t know where to start. I’m upset, pissed and hurt this is what has come to pass I’ll never see him again and although we didn’t have the best relationship he still was my blood. And I and my mother we just want to know how was he doing, good or bad it doesn’t matter just some closure. So anyone who has any information or maybe knew him please reply or contact me @ b.purpose@ymail.com and put Neville Williams as the subject. THANK YOU SO MUCH! FOR ANYONE WHO TAKES THE TIME OUT OF THEIR BUSY DAY TO FIND SOME OF THE ANSWERS TO OUR QUESTIONS.
James, I’m so sorry for your loss. I’ll ask the readers of this site if anyone knew him.
Thank you so much!