The authorities in Southern California are trying to find a driver who they stated could have deliberately struck three bicyclists in Huntington Beach in three separate incidents over the weekend.
One of the bicyclists was killed and the 2 others have been injured, the Huntington Beach Police Department stated.
The police stated on Monday that they’d responded to a few hit-and-run stories in about 45 minutes on Sunday evening. The collisions had occurred inside a mile of one another.
The first name got here in round 10:30 p.m. native time, and the bicyclist stated a car had “intentionally sideswiped” him, then fled the scene, the police stated. The bicyclist had minor accidents and was handled on the scene.
About quarter-hour later, the officers have been nonetheless investigating the hit and run after they obtained calls about one other bicyclist, who was mendacity on the street. That bicyclist was handled by paramedics however died from his accidents, the police stated.
The bicyclist who died was not named by the police.
Police officers have been investigating each incidents when a person referred to as and stated he had been using his bicycle in a crosswalk round 10 p.m. when he was hit by a car that then drove away. The bicyclist had minor accidents.
“At this time, it is believed the incidents are possibly related,” the police division stated in a news launch on Monday.
The police stated that based mostly on witness descriptions, the suspect’s car could have been a black Toyota four-door sedan “with significant passenger-side bumper damage.” They didn’t present info on a potential motive, or an outline of the motive force.
From 2018 via 2022, 76 bicyclists have been killed in Orange County, which incorporates Huntington Beach, in keeping with a University of California, Berkeley, database. The solely county in California to have extra deaths in that interval was Los Angeles County, the place 176 bicyclists died.
The United States is a world anomaly in roadway deaths. An estimated 42,795 folks, together with bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists, died on American roads in 2022, in keeping with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That was a slight drop from 2021, when 42,939 fatalities have been reported.
Roadway fatalities have been falling in comparably developed international locations lately after security measures have been launched that focused pedestrians and bicyclists, researchers say. Those security measures have included decreasing pace limits, constructing extra protected bike lanes and requiring car design security measures that higher defend folks exterior of a car.
Source: www.nytimes.com