not good in key west
 

bicyclist run over and killed by a raceboat being towed...and they never stopped. Then again did they even realize they ran over somebody?

https://www.flkeysnews.com/news/loca...Eq7Ywl7Rk7m4Vc


A bicyclist was killed in a hit-and-run crash with a truck towing a professional racing speedboat Saturday night in the Florida Keys. The 47-year-old man was the second cyclist killed that day in the Keys. Another person, Albert Joseph Mello, Jr., 69, died after being hit by a car while riding a bike on North Roosevelt Boulevard in Key West. The Monroe County Medical Examiner identified the person who died Saturday night as Manrique Cordoba. He was struck by what the Florida Highway Patrol describes as “a large truck pulling a power boat on a trailer,” which was heading south down Third Street on Stock Island around 9 p.m.

The large speedboats are in the Keys this week for the annual Race World Offshore Key West Offshore World Championship races. Representatives with the racing league did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the crash. Lt. Kathleen McKinney, FHP subdistrict commander for the Florida Keys, said a traffic homicide investigator is trying to obtain video footage from the scene and speak to additional witnesses. The FHP said in a news release Monday that the truck continued traveling south on Third Street after hitting the person on the bike. Witnesses did not get a license plate number. Cordoba died after being taken to Lower Keys Medical Center shortly after 10 p.m., according to the FHP. Police have so far been unable to notify his family “due to not having any information on file and no known family members,” troopers said.

It won't be hard for the cops to figure out which team it was once they get the area camera footage. Driver likely never felt it in the cab, especially if they were fatigued after a long haul, it was 9 pm so it was dark and if the roads are narrow/rough the truck was bouncing around anyway.

It is rather "potentially" incendiary to report it as a hit and run, when it could very well played out as you suggest, a hit and never realized. Hope so anyways.

Title is great also.
"Then took off"
WTF, did he deliberately?
How does the reporter know?

Stupid ass media.

^^^^agree 100%

You might also consider the victim (appeared to be homeless from the report) and the condition he was in. Was he riding a bike drunk and watched the truck pass and not realize their was a big boat behind it? There was a case recently that a drunk guy on a bike was riding on the sidewalk and his handle bar made contact with a pole and it steered the bike into traffic, truck missed the guy but the trailer didn't. It was caught on a traffic camera, truck driver didn't do anything wrong but just bad timing.

As much as I hate the media the way I read that was the police said the truck took off.

Either way I get the feeling they will find out the driver didn't even know, hopefully there was some camera that caught it. I mean its not like you are running away and hiding when you are there the whole week for the races!. Geez.

When I first got my drivers license, (a long time ago!) I was diving down a narrow gravel back road pulling my stock car on an open trailer, I came upon a father and two little kids on bicycles, I slowed down to a crawl in first gear, when the truck went by one of the kids, she was startled by the trailer and turned into it and wiped out. Thankfully I saw it happening and stopped before running her over. The father was understanding and apologized to me.
Bicycles can change direction in the blink of an eye!

How do they know it was a race boat? Possible poker run boat? pleasure boat?

The reporter was working from information supplied by law enforcement. That's how the story read and how it was written and properly sourced.

As for what kind of boat it was, yeah, understanding how the general public sees go-fast boats everyone from law enforcement to reporters to the average guy in the street should take a pause on that. The word, "Cigar Boat" comes to mind.

Submitted as a member of the stupid-ass media. :)

In black and white the article said "continued traveling south".
I don't see that as taking off, especially if the driver was unware he hit anyone.
"Taking Off" in my eyes means he knew he hit someone then got the hell out of there. YMMV

At this point it seems the "then took off" is a purposely dramatic headline (which is a stupid ass media tactic) presuming the truck operator willfully fled the scene. Which is clear speculation on behalf of the reporter given he presented no facts proving the operator fled willfully or even knew he hit someone.

Way to vague to determine anything yet.
Did he hit the guy head on?
Did the bicyclist run into the trailer and get knocked?
Hell the bicyclist could of very well hit the trailer, rode into it.
As said already, driver was probably unaware, hopefully at least!

Don't forget they also had to put "speed" in there for more drama. Because we all know speed kills.
Especially big bad speedboats.

FWIW
Don't take offense.
You may be a member of the media.

But don't put yourself anywhere near the level of the stupid ass media!

Only similarities are you report and type articles. That's it.
No bias out of you like the normal BS media.

You know Matt I really do not think of you as the Media.

So I went and reread the report rather then the comment above and you are right, the police didn't say that the truck took off. My bad, its what I get for reading real quick while working.

Does anyone feel bad for the poor guy that got run over and killed ? Sad . Homeless or not . Drunk or sober .. sad for the driver as well.

I was not offended in the least—I was making fun of myself.

There are a lot of people in my profession who shouldn't be in my profession. I would put it at more than half. :)

I'm very lucky to do what I do. I realize that. So I try to do it well.

I do. Sad all the way around.
No one wins in these deals.

He's just a homeless dude, if he owned a MTI or Skater the board would be outraged, instead it's the media's fault.

Yeah it really sucked for that guy regardless of who was at fault.

Until more details get reported there won't be much to say. Was the boat over width, did the guy get picked off by a sponson? Was the truck/trailer taking a tight corner and roll over the guy as he was waiting to cross the street? Too many variables but I'd find it hard to believe the driver knowingly ran the guy over and left the scene. Key West is too small and your hauling a big boat, not like you picked the guy off in the middle of nowhere driving a white van or white Camry.

You know, I do enjoy riding a bike, I have a nice 'mountain bike' that I prowl around side streets in my little town of 800 and on a couple of trails outside town in the country...but for the life of me I just don't "get" the whole cycling on busy streets/highways. And far too many cyclists are frankly, a$$hats that think they own the road, and don't abide by the rules, etc, etc. I can't count how many times I've seen a group of cyclists run stop signs or hold traffic up. It is a tragedy for sure that the person lost his life...but there IS a sort of Darwin Award action going on with street cyclists.

The driver was Jason Lindemann pulling his Nortech CC.

This Jason Lindemann?

​​​​​​https://fox11online.com/news/crime/e...rtment-justice

If it was the guy with the collision with the paddle wheel earlier in year... speechless.

Condolences for the deceased.

all the same to most people. The public thinks poker runs are races. In fact, most poker runners do too. A lot of the reason I don't attend poker runs is seeing "poker run race team" matching uniforms make me want to puke.
Condolences to the poor guy on the bike. Here's hoping for the best possible outcome in an already complicated Key West week.

My dad lived a couple blocks from St Mathews House that helped the poor immigrants down here in Naples and while heading over to see him the last 30years I can't count how many times I had close calls with unlit bicyclist in the dark, especially making right turns and they come from behind and run stop signs.

Also as a truck driver I can tell you that front left quarter is a total blind spot, speaking from experience as I clipped a car while making a slow gradual lane change to the right going around Chicago one slow Sunday night..

I couldn't believe I missed the car between my front fender parabolic mirror and my door hung parabolic, but in later days I noticed certain height and length cars could hide between the mirrors.

This brings back some bad memories for me. Years ago a friend of mine lost her teenage son in a similar accident in Potsdam, NY. He was riding his bike home from his after school job and was stopped on the sidewalk waiting for traffic at an intersection. A tractor trailer made a right hand turn and the back wheels of the trailer jumped the curb and ran over her son. The truck driver never felt it and never stopped. I do believe they ended up finding out who the driver was but it was just that, an accident. Tragic for both my friend Debbi and for the truck driver.

Is this fact or a horrible attempt at humor ?

No one in this thread said or suggested it was the medias fault.

Just inaccurate (until the facts are known) biased (blaming the truck operator and claiming he "took off" prior to any known evidence to suggest such is factual) reporting out of the media.
At least in the linked article.