CAPE CORAL
On Tuesday afternoon, a 71-year-old bicyclist was killed after a closed sidewalk forced him into the path of a pickup truck on Country Club Boulevard in Cape Coral.
According to the Cape Coral Police Department, Lee Earl Cavanaugh of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, was riding his bike north just before 4 p.m. near the 1400 block of Country Club Boulevard. Cavanaugh was riding on the sidewalk until he reached a section of sidewalk that was closed, and he crossed from the sidewalk into the outside right lane of Country Club Boulevard using a driveway.
This put Cavanaugh in the path of a Ram 3500 pickup truck driven by a 39-year-old man from Fort Myers, towing a dump trailer north in the outside right lane of Country Club Drive. The truck driver swerved within the lane to avoid a collision because there were vehicles in the left lane. The passenger sides of the pickup and the trailer struck Cavanaugh, who was thrown from his bicycle and landed on the grass shoulder of the road.
The Ram’s driver pulled off the road at the intersection of Country Club Boulevard and Southeast 14th Street. Cavanaugh was transported to Cape Coral Hospital where he was declared dead a short time later.
According to CCPD, alcohol, drugs and high speed were not factors in the crash.
WINK NEWS