As if the news couldn’t get any worse this week, now we’ve learned that yet another bike rider died after a San Diego hit-and-run earlier this month.
The victim’s sister announced the news by asking for help finding the driver.
Estefania Gallardo Bledsoe said her brother, 43-year old Clairemont resident Andrés Gallardo, was riding in the parking lane on Ashford Street around 11:30 pm on Sunday, March 1st, when the driver struck him from behind.
Fox 5 San Diego places the crash near Ashford and Hutton streets, though they apparently mean Ashford and Hatton.
Gallardo was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died, although it’s not clear just when he passed away.
The driver fled the scene.
Witnesses report hearing a loud collision, which suggests that speed may have been a factor. However, there’s no description of the driver or suspect vehicle at this time.
Bledsoe describes her brother as a happy, funny person, who worked in construction and loved soccer, cooking and his 16-year old son.
According to 10 News San Diego, she can’t understand how anyone could just leave him like that.
“If you do that, you have no heart and no soul. I don’t know how someone can go to bed at night and sleep, thinking about this,” Estefania said.
Despite her grief, Estefania said she is not giving up hope that someone will come forward with information.
“I still have hope. I believe good people are out there that know something. I’m not going to stop until I know who it was,” Estefania said.
We can hope.
A crowdfunding campaign to help defray funeral expenses and carry Gallardo’s ashes to his mother in West Virginia and his father in the Magallanes region of Chile has raised 65% of the approximately $4,000 goal.
This the 22nd bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the fourth in San Diego County.
That means a SoCal bike rider has been killed an average of every three-and-a-third days since the first of this awful year.
Seven of those deaths have now involved hit-and-run drivers.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Andrés Gallardo and his family and loved ones.
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