Dear Editor,
On, Sunday, February 22, two females on motorcycles were heading north on U.S. 41 through Ruskin in the standard staggered pattern for safety and visibility. Around 5 p.m., shortly after passing the McDonalds and the Ruskin Family Drive-In, a man driving a dark blue, older model midsized car with dark tinted windows, swerved towards the rider in lead position forcing her off the road onto the median.
The driver literally looked her in the face as he was forcing her off the road. The rider was able to regain control and got back on the highway, still continuing north. The car, again in front of the lead rider, quickly came to a complete stop forcing the lead rider to lock up her bike and sent her airborne. At this point, the rider sustained major head injuries and a broken neck. She was rendered unconscious while the second rider, in sheer panic, came to her side, but remembers the driver seemed fully aware of what he had done and suddenly fled the scene.
Due to the head injuries of the lead rider and the panic stricken second rider, additional details are uncertain. There is not enough information for law enforcement to track this car down. We need the community’s help! If anyone witnessed this accident or has any information, please contact the Florida Highway Patrol, Case #84860680. We are also asking if anyone has surveillance cameras that can see the northbound side of U.S. 41, in hopes of seeing the vehicle mentioned above so that we can locate the car and its driver. There was a TECO employee that stopped at the scene, after the fact, and we would like to ask him what he saw.
If anyone has any additional information, please email hwy41accident@gmail.com.
This accident is the fifth vehicular assault on motorcyclists (that we know of) in the Bay area that has been unsolved and does not have enough information for law enforcement to charge. One of the five was a fatality.