The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Major Accident Investigation Team is investigating a fatal accident between a car and a cyclist Thursday morning in Highland. According to reports, the cyclist was riding along the west shoulder of southbound Greenspot Road, about ½ mile east of Santa Ana Canyon Road. A car that had been going northbound on Greenspot Road crossed over into the southbound lane at approximately 70 mph and fatally struck the cyclist. The accident happened just before 10 a.m. April 8th. Illegal street racing is reportedly to blame.
The victim was identified as Jorge Alvarado, 27, of Ontario. According to the San Bernardino County Coroner's press release, Alvarado, originally from Mexico, was a member of the Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team and a pro cyclist. He was one of five amateur riders added to the Bahati Foundation team for the 2010 season, and was on a training ride when the accident occurred.
Who Was At Fault?
According to reports in the Press-Enterprise, Alvarado was struck by a white 2002 Honda Accord driven by an 18-year-old Highland resident, Patrick Roraff, who had one passenger, and was following two other Hondas. All three vehicles were occupied by seniors from a local high school. Authorities do not believe that drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash, but it does appear this crash is caused by extraordinarily reckless driving. Hopefully the investigation will yield answers as to what happened, and the teens in the car will be truthful about what happened in the moments leading up to the incident.
Wrongful Death Liability
While this accident remains under investigation, the family of the victim would be well-advised to speak to a California bicycle accident attorney as soon as possible. A lawyer can monitor and closely follow the investigation, and help the family protect their legal rights in a wrongful death claim. Even if the driver is not cited or arrested for reckless driving, the family may still pursue justice in a civil claim for wrongful death.
Sounds like criminal charges will be filed against Patrick Roraff (the driver). So, so sad ;-(
Pro Cyclist Struck, Killed by 'Street Racing Teens'
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-pro-cyclist-killed,0,7484058.story
This happened around 10 a.m. - why weren't these kids in school?!?
bc it was probably spring break
its not just him... there were three cars.. filled with kids who, yes, ditched. most all of them will be prosecuted... sadly, because i go to school with all of them, and their actually really cool guys! This is really just a terrible tragedy that skrewed them all over entirely... 6 weeks before graduation btw
what is sad is that a man had to die because those cool guys were trying too hard to be cool.
what's sad is that my friend jorge had to die because of your cool friends. He didn't even have to try to be cool he was a very nice person and that is why if we want to race we do bike racing not street racing
No it was not Spring Break, they were ditching school! and I know forsure two out of the three drivers were 18
"a terrible tragedy that skrewed them all over entirely", really? They screwed THEMSELVES entirely. My husband is a cyclist and I worry about these kind of idiots that hit that poor guy ALL of the time...hopefully this wasn't a result of PTI Tony Kornheiser's comment about giving cyclists a "nudge" out on the road. I hope that if these guys go to prison, when they get out, they NEVER get to have the priviledge of a drivers license again and will forever have to ride a bike.