A late-night Halloween-themed ride in California at the weekend ended in horror after an alleged drink driver crashed into a group of 30 cyclists, killing two and seriously injuring one, before attempting to flee the scene.
The shocking incident took place on Saturday night, at around 10.30pm, in Montclair, California, around 30 miles east of Los Angeles. According to Montclair Police Department, a group of around 30 cyclists were taking part in an organised late-night group ride when a motorist, travelling in the opposite direction, struck the group head-on.
Eyewitnesses told broadcaster ABC that, following the collision, the motorist kept driving, dragging one of the cyclists with his car for “at least a mile”, leaving a trail of blood along the road and pavement. Parts of the car involved in the crash were left strewn across the road, as well as the broken bikes of the victims.
The driver, 38-year-old Valentin Alberto Rodriguez, then ditched his heavily damaged car, described as “blood-stained” and pictured with most of its front bumper missing, fleeing on foot. He was later tracked down by police officers and arrested at his home, close to the crash scene.
One of the cyclists struck by the motorist was pronounced dead at the scene. Two others were taken to a local hospital, where a woman died at around 1.19am. The other victim sustained serious injuries, described by police as “major”, and is currently in a stable condition. Another cyclist sustained a minor head laceration but declined to receive any medical treatment.
One local resident, Winni Mercado, told ABC that she heard the aftermath of the crash, including the sound of family members wailing over the body of one of the victims on the street.
“It was just awful, awful. I know I’ll never get that sound out of my head, just feeling that pain,” she said.
Rodriguez was arrested at around 2.40am on suspicion of driving under the influence and causing injury or death, felony hit-and-run involving death or permanent, serious injury, and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. Police say the investigation remains ongoing.
The horrific news from California comes just two months after the US cycling community was sent into mourning after a driver killed two members of a university cycling team and injured seven others in Tennessee.
11 members of the Milligan University team were on a morning training ride in Hampton in August when they were struck by motorist John Benfield.
In a video message, the university’s president Stephen Waers confirmed that Haylan Engdahl and Brayden Rogers were killed in the horror crash. Benfield, a 69-year-old from North Carolina, was arrested and charged with two counts of vehicular homicide by recklessness and five counts of aggravated assault by vehicle.
He was charged a month later with felony reckless endangerment and two new counts of aggravated assault.
This spate of tragedies has taken place against a worrying backdrop of increasingly divisive, violent anti-cycling rhetoric in the United States.
Last week, a clip resurfaced from a podcast showing YouTuber and gun rights activist Brandon Herrera, who is standing as a Republican congressional candidate in November’s midterm elections, repeatedly voicing his disdain for cyclists and admitting he’s fantasised about “running them all over”.
“Cyclists, I fucking hate cyclists,” he said in the clip, recorded in 2022. “Jesus fucking Christ! Where I used to live… cyclists would go out in bunches of 20 fucking people, like predators all hunting together. Except they’re the polar opposite of what a predator is. They’re just a fucking bundle of sticks. God, I hate them!
“They want to be treated like vehicles, like cars. But they’re not, they travel at fucking arrestable speed limits of not being a fucking car. And they expect you to respect the fact that they just want to be an asshole on Sunday mornings.
“I had fucking fantasies of running them all over and, you know, maybe one of these days I will. “Oh buddy, I’ve thought about ways I could get away with it. I feel like I could have done it without going to jail.”
The clip horrified cyclists on social media, with US-based campaigner Peter Flax pointing out the “vapid” nature of Herrera’s hatred towards people on bikes.
“What amazes me about this clip is just how vapid his hatred is. People doing something fun that he doesn’t like or understand who briefly get in his way… makes him admit homicidal desires. As I rider it’s hard to square that so many people feel this kind of hostility over such trivial shit,” Flax wrote.
“When I go to Costco, I feel frustrated by folks who take a huge cart of groceries to the self-checkout line and gum things up for people with ten things hoping to get out of there quickly. But to admit or even entertain violent thoughts would be so utterly bizarre. That’s what this guy is like to me.”
And a few days later, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a sympathetic profile on Jerry Ross, the 72-year-old motorist arrested in May after he was filmed driving into a group of cyclists while blaring his horn in Georgia.
The report described Ross as a “a fragile man” subject to bouts of dizziness and vertigo. It also detailed his call to the police describing the cyclists as riding three-abreast, with Ross adding he was “just tired” of the cyclists doing “what the hell they want”.
He also told the newspaper he believes the cyclist hit him, claiming he did nothing wrong.
1 thought on “Two cyclists killed as alleged hit-and-run drink driver ploughs head-on into US group ride, dragging one victim for “at least a mile””
From the country that loves a school shooting, thinks bike lanes are woke and endorses a child loving president, this is just another low in a long line of lows