A 19-year old man was killed while riding his bike in Yorba Linda last night.
My News LA reports that Jonathan Petsas of Placentia was struck by a car around 10:10 last night on Imperial Highway west of Esperanza Road.
According to the report, he was riding west on Imperial when he rode across the westbound traffic lanes into the path of car driven by an 86-year old man.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, just five days before his 20th birthday.
The driver remained at the scene, and there was no appearance of drug or alcohol use.
There’s no report on whether Petsas’ bike had lights or reflectors, or if the driver could have stopped in time to avoid the crash.
At that point, Imperial Highway appears to have a rideable shoulder, with three lanes of traffic in each direction and a double left turn lane, which may have been what he was trying to reach. It also appears to have a 60 mph speed limit, which means that traffic could have been traveling much faster at that hour.
Anyone who witnessed the crash is urged to call the CHP’s Santa Ana office at 714/567-6000.
This is the 61st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the ninth in Orange County; that compares with 15 in the county this time last year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Jonathan Petsas and all his loved ones.
We lift up our prayers for the family and friends of young Mr. Petsas.
This is really sad, but being a resident of the area I have to interject a fact. Imperial Hwy west (actually the road goes Northwest at that point) is not open to bicycles, and there is a sign posted at the intersection of Imperial Hwy and La Palma Ave.(just 1/4 mile from the accident site) warning of no bicycles, scooters,etc. There is a sidewalk on the south side of Imperial Hwy for cyclists to approach Esperanza road.
Thanks for that. I questioned why someone would even want to ride on a roadway like that, but did not know it was closed to bikes.
Thank you for reporting the facts as well as you could the man who hit my brother also had eye surgery the same day and was told not to drive and he is not being held accountable for that