Yet another person riding a bike has been left to die in the street by a heartless coward who fled the scene.
According to the Orange County Register, a bike rider identified only as an adult male was hit by an SUV shortly before 1 am on the 1400 block of West Warner Ave, just East of the South Pacific Ave in Santa Ana.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
There’s no word at this time what may have caused the collision, or how it occurred. Witnesses reported the driver fled east on Warner, but no description of the driver or the SUV is currently available.
A street view shows a wide open three lane roadway east of Pacific, with no parking allowed and nothing to slow drivers down.
Anyone with information is urged to call Santa Ana police Cpl. Matt Wharton at 714/245-8209.
This is the 26th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth in Orange County; it’s also the second in Santa Ana since the first of the year. That compares with ten in the seven county SoCal region this time last year, and none in the county.
Update: The victim has been identified as 44-year old Ricardo Aguilar; no city of residence was given. The time of the collision has been changed to around 5 am. Note: The story in the Register misidentified the victim as Ricardo Martinez; his niece sent a correction in the comments below.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Ricardo Aguilar and his loved ones.
This happened just a block away from the most recent SAAS Luces Vivas bike light and helmet giveaway on Thursday. Santa Ana is making huge strides towards becoming a less cyclist-hostile city (one example: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/youth-691128-santa-city.html), but on days like today it’s hard not to feel heartbroken that the pace of progress isn’t faster. This is not to suggest that our sadness can even begin to compare to the grief that must be felt by the friends and family of the victim must feel.
We demand justice. We demand change.
Our prayers go up for the family and friends of the victim.
Santa Ana, rough place for cyclists. I try to stay in Irvine or Newport.
Sure, south county in general has some great bicycling infrastructure. However, a quote from the article linked in Heather Young’s comment (above) may provide some perspective into this tragedy.
“Santa Ana is full of Latino people that are low-income, and not everyone has access to cars,”
It may be the victim of this crime was just trying to get to work, only to be snuffed by a heartless killer.
I’m the victims niece, I just want to thank you for your condolences and sharing the story on your website. Our family hopes the driver may be found so that there may be justice for my uncle, and I hope more can be done to keep bicyclists safe. Also, I know they released his name as Ricardo Martinez, but his name is Ricardo Aguilar. Thank you.
Thank you for the correction, I’ve changed his name above.
Please accept my deepest condolences for you and your family. I share your hope that the driver can be brought to justice, and we can put an end to tragedies like this once and for all.