Bike accident on 98

FHP has released the name:

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/rosa-41493-santa-south.html

Frankel was an assistant professor at Georgia Tech, not an instructor, much higher ranked. My son-in-law is an instructor in electrical engineering at Georgia Tech, and he's just in his first year of grad school there. Ditto for me as a calculus instructor at UF when I was 22. Assistant professors have Ph.D.s. Not that the life of a prof is more valuable than that of an instructor of anyone else, but just to set the record straight.

http://www.gatech.edu/directories/index.html?index=0&name=frankel,

RIP.

So sad to hear! We passed another similar accident here in Atlanta yesterday. Man was biking with his adult son and got hit from the back. So many lives changed in a split second!

I was checking out the "bike lane" on Hwy 98. it is no bike lane. why don't they put in a proper bike lane - there is plenty of room to do so. Even with a proper bike lane, I still think it would be a dangerous place to bike but at least there would be room to do so.

I was checking out the "bike lane" on Hwy 98. it is no bike lane. why don't they put in a proper bike lane - there is plenty of room to do so. Even with a proper bike lane, I still think it would be a dangerous place to bike but at least there would be room to do so.

I would like to see a separate bike path on 98, but that striped off lane with a long flat clear road is far better than most places people road bike without any problems.

Sadly the safety factor is mostly determined by how alert and aware drivers are - the biker really has little to contribute aside from wearing bright clothing and staying in their lane.

I see cars on 98 momentarily drift into the bike lane all the time. I conclude that nobody should ever bike on 98 regardless of his right to do so. It's a bad idea. The bad drivers win.

It's not just 98 - few people seem to be able to keep in their lane - which is why I stick to the paths with bikes and crash tested vehicles with airbags for the roads.

http://www.newsherald.com/news/hospital-95008-identity-injured.html

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Florida Highway Patrol is investigating a hit-and-run collision that killed a bicyclist Sunday shortly before midnight.

Marija Kostova, 22, was waiting for friends on her bicycle on the north side of the eastbound lane of Cabana Boulevard when her bicycle was hit by an unknown eastbound vehicle, according to a news release from FHP.

I briefly rode my bike in the bike lanes of Hwy 98. I got off of 98 as fast as I could and I found the experience thoroughly unnerving to do again.

With the right-of-way that 98 has it seems like they could put in a small path 15-20 feet off of the traffic lanes without much issue. It wouldn't have to be wide or paved. They could just use crushed gravel.

I was taught many moons ago to ride facing traffic and not ride with the traffic, least you get hit. Was that right or are cyclist taught to ride with the flow, not against it.

You are supposed to walk against traffic and bike with traffic.

I believe the law requires that cyclists ride with the flow of traffic and abide by the same traffic laws as all other vehicles on the road. I know it seems like riding toward traffic would give you a "heads up" of approaching danger, in reality, you wouldn't have time to react if a car were bearing down on you. I know there are other practical reasons for the law, but I'm not an experienced cyclist, so maybe someone will pop in to educate us!

I believe, by law, if they are usiing a highway, they need to go with the traffic, and obey all the rules of the road. In answer to the poster who suggested a gravel bike path: no bicycler is going to use a gravel path. The reason they are on the highways in the first place is because of the smooth, straight pavement. I know it's sounds fanciful, but why couldn't someone just build a bicycler's parkway, somewhere out in the state forests somewhere, so that these people wouldn't feel compelled to tempt fate by attempting to ride so close to huge metallic boxes travelling at almost 100 miles per hour. The only way you're going to find me on one these crazy American highways is in a big metallic box with seatbelts and airbags and horsepower enough to try to avoid the crazies.

I was self-taught to only ride on the sidewalk/bikepath, or on the road in areas of slow moving congested traffic where cars don't travel much above 25 mph. On narrow roads, there are definitely times that I will ride against traffic. I'll be the judge and do what I think is safest. I will never under any circumstances use toe clips.

I briefly rode my bike in the bike lanes of Hwy 98. I got off of 98 as fast as I could and I found the experience thoroughly unnerving to do again.

With the right-of-way that 98 has it seems like they could put in a small path 15-20 feet off of the traffic lanes without much issue. It wouldn't have to be wide or paved. They could just use crushed gravel.

you are smart to get the heck off 98! I'm telling you, that is not a bike lane. It is very, very small and is almost sharing the right hand lane with traffic. Not good enough for a bike, imo. There is plenty of room for a safe and separate bike lane to be built.

I know it's sounds fanciful, but why couldn't someone just build a bicycler's parkway, somewhere out in the state forests somewhere, so that these people wouldn't feel compelled to tempt fate by attempting to ride so close to huge metallic boxes travelling at almost 100 miles per hour.

It's one of the big uses of the rails-to-trails movement, which repurposes old railroad track and rightaway for public recreation. Unfortunately, the closest park like that to here runs north of Milton, FL.

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/gwt/guide/regions/panhandlewest/trails/black_heritage.htm

We passed by just after the accident happened saturday morning, we were headed up to DeFuniak to get my dad to spend a day with us at the beach. 45 minutes later we are back to the macabe scene, with the white mens bike shoes still clipped to the pedals of the mangled bike and we knew the man must have died. A Mercedes and a van were parked on the inside lane and traffic was routed into the grassy medium. I will never again pass by a cyclist without thinking of the man that lost his life on 98. I know the young woman who hit this man is forever changed as well. Please, please cyclists: know hwy 98 is a very busy highway.

Here are the Florida bike laws. http://www.dot.state.fl.us/safety/ped_bike/laws/ped_bike_bikeLaws1.shtm

I ride on 98 to run errands and will still do it. When there's a sidewalk that's where I ride if not I stay in the bike lane. Shame that $600,000 plus was spent landscaping the medians on 98 a few years ago but not penny spent on a separate bike lane.

Here are the Florida bike laws. http://www.dot.state.fl.us/safety/ped_bike/laws/ped_bike_bikeLaws1.shtm

I ride on 98 to run errands and will still do it. When there's a sidewalk that's where I ride if not I stay in the bike lane. Shame that $600,000 plus was spent landscaping the medians on 98 a few years ago but not penny spent on a separate bike lane.

I thought that same thing when I saw all that landscaping go in the median. What a waste of money.

Is building and maintaining a separate bike path on 98 something that the TDC is allowed to spend bed tax money on?

Sadly a separate path system is far more realistic than cars and bikes learning to co-exist like they do so many other places.

I am confused about the newspaper report, it says the bicylist was on the shoulder and the driver was in the outside lane.

Isn't the shoulder on the right side of the highway and isn't the outside lane the left lane? Was he on the right or left side of the highway when hit?

No, the right hand lanes are the outside lane. The 2 left lanes are the inside lanes.

The shoulder/3' bike lane is on the outside of the outside lanes. R L median L R

Update

SANTA ROSA BEACH – No charges will be filed against the driver whose vehicle struck and killed an Atlanta cyclist on U.S. Highway 98 last summer.
The media release issued by the Florida Highway Patrol had listed charges as pending. But homicide investigators could not determine where Frankel’s bicycle was when the collision occurred.
There were no witnesses to the actual collision except for Alford, whose initial statement indicated that he had swerved out in front of her Mercedes Benz, according to Lt. Steve Preston, spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol.
She refused to submit to a follow-up interview with the homicide investigator.
“She has a constitutional right not to submit to the interview and she chose not to,” Preston said. “During the course of the investigation it was determined she was not talking on her cell phone and she was not texting.”
Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, he said.
Preston said that neither independent witnesses nor the debris field gave investigators clear information about where the collision had occurred. There were no gouges or scuff marks on the pavement, either.
“We were unable to determine the point of the crash,” Preston said.
Florida law requires cyclist to ride as close to the righthand side of the lane as possible. They are not required to ride in the shoulder, Preston said.
Three motorists reported seeing Frankel riding in the middle of the through lane prior to the accident. One motorist told troopers he had yelled out the window, urging Frankel to move over.
Preston said his agency took their findings to the state attorney’s office, which agreed with the decision not to charge Alford.

Sounds to me he got what he deserved. Anybody who rides a bike on 98 is stupid at best.

Your insensitivity is incredible. A man is dead and his wife a widow through a tragic accident and you say he deserved it, where is your human compassion?

Noone deserves to get run over. Hope I never am biking on a road at the same time you are driving.