A bicyclist was killed by a car in a hit-and-run collision Sunday morning on the Rickenbacker Causeway near the entrance to Key Biscayne.
As the cyclist fell to the pavement on Bear Cut Bridge, bleeding profusely, the silver Volkswagen Jetta barely paused, witnesses said.
The car, its windshield smashed by the impact of the cyclist’s body, dragged the bicycle at high speed into the middle of the village of Key Biscayne. The bike finally became dislodged from the car and came to rest outside a supermarket.
The motorist, whose name was unavailable, then drove several blocks more.
Key Biscayne police later seized the car. It could not be determined whether the driver was detained.
Hours after the 8 a.m. crash, the crumpled remains of the blue Cannondale bike lay on the grass in front of the village Winn-Dixie, surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape and guarded by a police officer. A few blocks away, the badly damaged Wolfsburg-edition Jetta also was guarded by police.
A neighbor said the driver lives nearby.
After the crash, angry cyclists who tried to help the victim posted comments on websites, including The Miami Herald’s, complaining that rescue units took about 20 minutes to respond to frantic 911 calls from the scene, even though a Miami-Dade fire station is a couple of miles away on Crandon Boulevard.
Two cyclists – a doctor and a firefighter – tried to help the victim, who lay in the bicycle lane, one witness told The Herald.
The incident prompted the closure of Bear Cut Bridge’s eastbound lanes for most of the morning. The cyclist was riding toward Key Biscayne in the bike lane when he was struck, witnesses said.
The cyclist was taken by ambulance to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
