Two visiting cyclists were struck and killed in a crash on Tucson’s northwest side.
According to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department a group of 10 cyclists were stopped at a red light heading south on La Cañada at Hardy Road when Brian Lynch, 28, struck five members of the group.
Clare Rhodes, 72, died at the scene and Kenneth Vieira, 68, died at the hospital. The other cyclists were transported to the hospital where one cyclist remains in critical condition.
Lynch was arrested driving under the influence, two counts of manslaughter, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of aggravated assault with serious injury and criminal damage.
The Arizona Daily Star is reporting that the cyclists were visiting from Santa Fe.
Other news sites reporting the driver was arrested for DUI. What time of day did this tragedy occur?
I offer my sincere condolences to the families of the deceased riders and wish the remaining survivors a speedy recovery from their injuries. I am a cyclist from the United Kingdom and literally a few days before this tragedy was riding the very same streets of Tucson, having come down from Santa Fe as well to do some riding. I am also of a similar vintage to those involved in this accident and have ridden in Tucson several times including Mount Lemmon, without any problems. Indeed I was advocating Tucson as one of the best places in the US to ride a bike, which I still believe is true. I am so sorry this has happened and just hope the driver who allegedly committed this crime can be brought to justice.
@larry 12:45pm
Sad to hear about cyclist losing their lives from someone being irresponsible. It’s sad that he’ll only spend maybe a year to two years in jail. They need to make tougher penalties for a DUI involving multiple fatalities.
this is so Sad, in Houston there is a cyclist hit almost everyday. Nothing is being done about it, motorist just say I didn’t see them. Why didn’t you see them should be the question. I was drunk, on my phone ect.
Whenever I read news stories about cyclists being killed or injured it makes me think of what went wrong to cause this horrible situation. In this case all 10 riders were following the law and waiting a red light for the light to change. Then the unexpected happens and an apparent drunk driver slams into this bunch of senior bike riders and two of them are eventually killed.
It’s times like this that I’m that much more careful riding my bike in Tucson. You can be doing everything correctly and still be injured or killed.
My thoughts and prayers for the families of these two cyclists. Ride Safe Everybody!!!
Speaking as a sophisticated, educated road cyclist who rides many miles here in Tucson, at times in groups, I would have taken a broken carbon tube fragment and carved out his still-beating heart and eaten it before law enforcement officials arrived on the scene, realizing that eating his heart would likely render me intoxicated on the toxicology screening to result in a longer incarceration, if not death sentence, than this man will likely experience in this back-water state, .
Tucson is bikeable, but not bike friendly. (I ride a lot. I have been hit 5 times, twice in Tucson, and almost hit today.)
Sorry, for my sarcastic comment. My point primarily is that cyclists should be angry. We live in a city which on one hand promotes cycling for its tourism and, on another, antagonizes the cycling community. The streetcar project endangered cyclists. The plan to enforce law on Mt Lemmon. I was buzzed by 3 pickups over last weekend while descending at speeds, my own, over the speed limit. How will law enforcement inhibit this? Is this not the real danger? Us being killed by them?
You will forgive my lack of Christianity, but I hope that scumbag that killed my friend Ken and killed and hurt the others, rots in prison for the rest of his worthless life. ,
@Keith Gonzalez I think you identify the principle issues at stake here. Our infrastructure isn’t good enough to really protect cyclists. And enforcement, when it happens, seems to target cyclists “for our own safety.”
I’ve called the cops about drivers who have shouted and thrown things at me, and they’ll refuse to take license plate numbers or to do anything at all. All the cops in Tucson seem to do is to pick up the pieces after another inevitable “accident” and comment on whether victims of traffic violence were wearing a helmet.
Just FYI to everyone, this driver was in a Scott Roofing company truck.
So when you’re shopping around for roofers, consider whether you want to take a chance that your contractor will never show up because he’s drunk in the middle of the day and is busy maiming and killing cyclists.
I’m sure there are contractors in town who screen out drunk drivers (or fire them). Not Scott, apparently.