sentinel4675

Annually, several Indiana police officers ride bikes across Indiana to raise money for COPS, Concerns of Police Survivors in Indiana. They just came through my city, South Bend, this past Saturday. I just received word that two of them were killed today and a third was airlifted in critical condition. From what I have been told, an unknown vehicle struck the support vehicle behind them and forced the vehicle into two of the bikers. Details are still coming in.

tbdean

I found this via Google News:

https://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...EWS01/60822030

It will be interesting to see how this progresses, how the driver is charged considering that he hit police officers.

My prayers go out to the families of the officers. They were doing this off-duty, probably with out pay. They sounded like good guys.

sentinel4675

One of the riders, not sure if he was one killed, retired 3 weeks ago to be able to ride this ride.

Wulfheir

After facing the risks of being on duty, to have something like this happen off-duty almost makes it suck more.

sentinel4675

Yep, one of the officers just gave his daughter away in marriage this past weekend and just retired from his department to take this ride.

Old Dirt Hill

How tragic. Be careful out there.

Goldrush

This was a freak accident. I live just a few miles from where it took place. It's a 4 lane, divided highway, with light traffic and wide shoulders. I always thought it was of one the safest places possible to ride.

................box truck collided with a smaller support truck that was following the riders about 12:30 p.m. on Ind. 63 near Perrysville, about five miles east of the Illinois border, First Sgt. Brian Olehy said. The impact sent the smaller truck into the line of 10 riders................

The support truck was said to have had flashers on. It was a bright sunny day on the straight, flat highway. The box truck driver couldn't have been paying attention.

Tom Stormcrowe

Here's the AP Press release:
By KEN KUSMER
Associated Press Writer
COVINGTON, Ind. (AP) ? A vehicle hit by a truck slammed into charity bicyclists Tuesday, killing a state trooper and a sheriff?s deputy and injuring three other riders, police said.
Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Watts said several police agencies were participating in the ride. The group was traveling south on Indiana 63 about two miles from Interstate 74 in Vermillion County near the Indiana-Illinois state line.
Riders were raising money for survivors of police officers killed while on duty.
Karen Shelton, director of operations for the Indiana Troopers Association, said a state trooper and a Lake County Sheriff?s deputy were both killed during the accident. Their names were not immediately released.
The troopers organization hosted the riders during part of their trip last week.
?They were all very upbeat when they were here Friday night,? she said. ?They do this on their own time which I think is admirable.?
About 30 bicyclists planned to ride portions of 1,100 miles over 13 days, while eight were planning to trek the entire route. The ride began Aug. 16 and was to end Aug. 28 in Indianapolis at Crown Hill Cemetery?s ?Heroes of Public Safety.?
The group was planning to ride 98 miles from Kentland in Newton County south to Terre Haute on Tuesday, according to their schedule.
Money raised supports Indiana Concerns of Police Survivors, which provides support for families of officers killed in the line of duty and helps send them to Washington, D.C., for annual memorial services.

Prayers for the families

webist

Felled while helping survivors of the fallen. How sad. How honorable.

geo8rge

Condolences to the famillies. In general if there is a vehicle stopped on a highway, don't stand in front of it.

ryanparrish

jeez I freaked out when I saw this on the news I couldnt believe something like this could happen like several months ago the breast cancer riders got assaulted by a car or something like that cant remember

indianatrails

Indeed this is one of the worst things I have ever heard. Small consolation that the cyclists weren't just unseen and hit directly. And small consolation that of the 100 almost random motor vehicle deaths each day in the US, hardly any involve cyclists. My wife was practically in tears about this as I biked out this morning but honestly I wouldn't have any better chances in a car.

Staceyfb

I am just sickened by this, this guy should fry. I can't even imagine what the poor driver that was driving the sag wagon is suffering. He/she basically just watched 2 of their friends die at their hand. Cannot even imagine, there isn't enough drugs to keep me doped long enough.
Heres the latest https://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...608230464/1006
Flashing lights and a sign that read "Caution, cyclists ahead" were displayed on the support truck, an Enterprise rental.

Bikepacker67

That doesn't sound like a freak accident. It sounds like negligence.

Tom Stormcrowe

They got hit while riding by their pilot vevicle, clearly marked and Strobed by a commercial truck hitting their escort truck, spinning it into them. Investigation is ongoing as to whether the Commercial driver was in compliance with rest requirements and vehicle safety.

sentinel4675

No, they were struck by their tail vehicle which was struck in the rear and forced into the bikes not the pilot vehicle.

John Wilke

I agree.

Freak accident: A bird flew through the window of the first truck, causing him to loose control.

jw

k.buz

Gary Martin was a professor of mine at Indiana University Northwestern. He was a great professor, and a greater person. He will be sorely missed.

Please keep these two cyclists in your thoughts.

Helmet Head

Let's keep things in perspective. It's a tragedy, and arguably preventable, but you are not ever going to eliminate distracted driving: drivers are human. When you have 150+ million of them out there, sooner or later someone's error is going to cause death or injury.

On average, 90 people per year in the U.S. are killed by lightning.

The number of people that are killed while riding bikes and getting rear-ended by a motor vehicle that was rear-ended by another is probably much smaller than that. The total number of U.S. cyclist deaths per year is about 800, and more than half of those are from cyclists riding at night without lights, and/or cyclists riding on the wrong side of the road.

Despite tragedies like this one, cycling overall is very safe (though of course not perfectly safe - there is always a risk), particularly for those who obey the basic rules of the road.

coriander

For the most part I ride conservatively and I obey the rules of the road. I have been hit by a car once. I have been run off the road once. I have had food and other objects thrown at me. I wiped out after hitting a patch of tar on a turn. I have had numerous close calls with cars and trucks.

I have been bicycling for years. And I have some very good friends who I bicycle regularly with. And we all agree on one thing: cycling is not very safe. We love it, and we are not going to stop, but we would never say it is very safe. Now, granted we often bicycle on busy roads. But I was hit by a car out in the middle of nowhere and I have had close calls in both populated and rural areas.

You quote some statistics about bicycling deaths. How about some statistics on bicycling injuries. And I wouldn't trust the statistics on injuries in any case, because most of them are not reported.

sentinel4675

Well, looks like no charges in this double fatality.
https://www.wndu.com/news/092006/news_52774.php

slvoid

Excellent... what an easy way to murder police officers...

R-Wells

I have been setting here for 30 minutes trying to think of something to post.

I just cant come up with words to say it.

Dchiefransom

I've driven SAG for a few organized rides. There's no reason for a vehicle to be driving along at the speed of a cyclist, no matter how well marked. If the road is as nice to ride on as described by someone here, then they can go up ahead and pull over and wait. Any vehicles behind can also wait for a period. In this age of cell phones, it is easy to call for help if needed.

sentinel4675

Gee, thanks for your valued input. Evidently the SAG vehicle was needed to be at the rear because even with a big clearly marked vehicle there, the jerk in the bigger vehicle still struck the vehicle.