By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
I almost dread picking up the cell phone and reading the first-thing-in-the morning headlines these days.
But journalist mode kicks in quickly and there it was — a statement from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on the death of Columbus Blue Jackets star player Johnny Gaudreau.
What?!
Was I even awake?
Bettman’s statement did not say how the 31-year-old Gaudreau died.
I speculated internally maybe a car crash.
I quickly did the web search.
And a wave of profound sadness just crashed my heart.
Gaudreau and his brother, Matt, were killed by an accused drunk driver while they rode their bicycles in New Jersey about 35 miles south of Philadelphia a day before their sister was going to be married today in Philly. The driver was Sean M. Higgins, a 43-year-old.
From an Associated Press news report: “Higgins told a responding officer he had five or six beers prior to the crash and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint obtained by The Associated Press. He failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said, though his blood-alcohol level was not immediately available.”
A quick episode of denying this numbing horror melted into the brutal reality — that bicyclists are struck and tragically killed across the country.
We know the grief and pain here in Las Vegas. This is just a small slice of the horror on the roads.
A 20-year-old man hung out a window of a van and pushed 56-year-old Michelle Weissman off her bike on Hollywood Boulevard in east Las Vegas Oct. 25, 2020, killing the former Cannery hotel-casino employee.
A truck driver with a high level of meth in his system killed five bicyclists south of Boulder City Dec. 10, 2020.
A driver killed former Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Knapp in Contra Costa County east of Oakland July 17, 2021.
Two teenagers drove a car and killed retired California police chief Andreas Probst when they intentionally drove their car into the man while he pedaled his bicycle in Las Vegas Aug. 14, 2023.
Bicycling has always been a joyful activity for me.
I never feel bad after a bike ride.
Except on the day of March 7, 2017 when a distracted driver smashed into me from behind while I was bicycling on a quiet intracoastal road in St. Lucie County, Florida north of the city of Fort Pierce.
The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office did not even give a ticket to the driver, a man by the name of Dennis Brophy.
I still have the crash report that said Brophy, 64, “made no apparent attempt to pass the bicyclist crashing into the rear of the bicycle.” Those were the words of an eyewitness, James Pedra, who was driving a car in the opposite direction on Old Dixie Highway.
I wrote about a book about the recovery and how it put me on a path back to Las Vegas where I launched LVSportsBiz.com in June 2017 after the crash.
Bicycling is the best stress and sorrow reliever, so it was natural to get on my road bicycle and bike the nine miles from my home to the summit of Mountain Springs, a small town on State Road 160.
Most of the drivers do not comply with Nevada state law to move over a lane when passing me as I slowly churned the miles up to Mount Potosi.
The Nevada state Department of Transportation can easily install signs advising drivers to move over a lane when passing a bicyclist.
But they don’t.
The Nevada DOT does the minimum for bicyclists.
There’s no regional paved trail system in metro Las Vegas. There are bits and pieces of paved trails here and there, but there’s no network.
The county commissioners have more important things to do — like approving plans for the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix on the Strip and bonds to help the A’s build their stadium on the Strip.
The independent People For Bikes organization rated Las Vegas 1,647th out of 2,579 cities — a 36th percentile rating. That’s a failing grade.
Like I said, bicycle safety is not a priority for Las Vegas.
I made it to the top of State Road 160 and took my selfie by the sign this morning. I thought about Johnny and all the other bicyclists who have been killed and injured on our roads. I heard eight kids were hit in school zones around Las Vegas so far, down a little from last year. But still, business as usual.
Our road system, our transportation approach, puts convenience of people over the safety of walkers and bicyclists.
I hate to have to say this. But the reality is tragedies like the bicyclist deaths of the Gaudreau brothers will continue because we are not changing the system.
Motorists know they will not suffer consequences for crashing into walkers and bicyclists. Road designers prioritize convenience over safety. Everyone from police to elected officials are more focused on other things.
So the crashes and the deaths and the mourning will continue.
And your left with a friend telling you simply, “Be safe out there,” and nothing more.