Not every bicycling fatality involves another vehicle.
Sadly, sometimes all it take is one bad fall.
According to the San Bernardino Sun, 54-year old Valencia resident Mario Steven Cruz was riding on a downhill trail at the Snow Summit Mountain Resort in Big Bear on Friday morning when he fell from his bike. He was not breathing when an off-duty ski patrol member arrived at the scene around 9:35 am.
Cruz was flown to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he died the next day around 10:35 am.
This is the 52nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 7th in San Bernardino County; he is also the third bike rider to die in the county in just the last week.
Update: In tragic news for a department that has already suffered too much loss in recent months, Brion reports in a comment below that Cruz is a retired LAPD Motor Officer.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Mario Cruz and his family.
Retired LAPD Motor Officer Mario Cruz
Damn. The LAPD has had too much bad news lately. Thanks for the news.
I really don’t like how this article makes it sound like mountain bikers die as regular as clockwork. Saying that this incident is the “52nd” fatality in southern California this year doesn’t mention that most of those fatality’s are from road riding. I will be praying for the family
There is absolutely nothing in this story to suggest that most, or even many, of these fatalities occurred while mountain biking. In fact, the opening sentence makes it clear that bicycling deaths that don’t involve another vehicle are the exception, rather than the rule.
Those 52 bicycling fatalities to date include every type of rider who has died from any cause, other than shooting, in the seven-county Southern California region.
As you suggest, 43 of those riders have died in traffic collisions, though I have no way of knowing what kind of bike they were riding. Two died in collisions with trains, two died of natural causes, one died in a collision with another bike rider, one died of exposure resulting from adverse weather conditions and three died of solo falls. Of those, only two were mountain biking that I am aware of.
To suggest that this somehow suggests that mountain bikers “die as regular as clockwork” is to read something into it that just isn’t there, and isn’t supported by the facts.
Just FYI…the rider killed in this incident was not riding on the established bike trail. He was riding on a closed service road which is posted for NO BIKES.