An 83-year-old Broward man dies after a garbage truck slams into his bike on the turnpike
Florida Highway Patrol officers are working several fatal accidents on South Florida roadways Friday morning, including one that killed an 83-year-old bicyclist riding in a restricted area along Florida’s Turnpike.
The garbage truck struck the man around 5:15 a.m. Friday on the southbound Turnpike about half a mile south of Interstate 595 in Davie.
According to Lt. Indiana Miranda, the elderly Lauderhill man on a Roadmaster Granite Peak 26 mountain bike was pedaling south in an outside travel lane prohibited to pedestrians and cyclists. The garbage truck driver, a 48-year-old Lauderdale Lakes man in a 2022 Peterbilt 520, was traveling south in the outside travel lane when the cyclist got in his way.
The truck slammed into the back of the bike, sending the cyclist off the bike onto an outside merge lane that runs from Interstate 595 to southbound lanes of the turnpike., Miranda said The man died on the road and his bike landed about 700 feet away from the crash.
Three right lanes remain closed as of noon. Five lanes are open, Miranda said.
Officers have not released the names of the two men and the investigation is ongoing.
Another fatal crash
Miranda also said officers are investigating another fatal crash in Davie Friday morning.
According to Miranda, a 20-year old Pompano Beach man died after he tried to avoid a rear end crash and his car instead flipped on State Road 84 and Southwest 136th Avenue around 8:15 a.m.
The man, in a gold 2004 Fort Explorer, was in the center westbound lane of State Road 84 and crossing the intersection of Southwest 136th Avenue in Davie.
Officers say he “jerked the wheel to the left to avoid a rear end crash” with a man, 26, driving a blue 2019 Honda Civic in the same lane and lost control of the Explorer.
The Explorer rolled over, throwing the driver onto the left grass shoulder of SR84 where he died. The cars did not collide. The Civic was also carrying a 24-year-old passenger but neither she nor that car’s driver, both from Pembroke Pines, was hurt.
SR84 is shutdown westbound at Southwest 136th Avenue.
This is a developing story and will be updated when more information becomes available.
