INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Florida Highway Patrol troopers continue to search for the vehicle that fatally struck a bicyclist in a hit-and-run collision over the weekend. Another bicyclist found the body of the 58-year-old man in a ditch along Eighth Street after he was hit from behind by the vehicle.
The man was taken by ambulance to HCA Florida Vero Beach Emergency Room where doctors pronounced him dead, according to Indian River County sheriff’s officials. The crash site is located just down the road from the Chase Meadows neighborhood.
The man was traveling on an electric bike with a small bicycle trailer, said Lt. Kevin Jaworski, a spokesperson for the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office. Details on the other type of vehicle involved and its driver were not immediately available.
Deputies responded to the crash just before 10 p.m. Friday in the 1100 block of Eighth Street, just west of 11th Avenue and south of the Vero Beach city limits. Troopers said the bicyclist and the unknown vehicle were both headed eastbound on Eighth Street.
The bicyclist was ahead of the vehicle.
For an unknown reason, the vehicle struck the bicyclist, causing him to veer off the road to the right and fall into a ditch, troopers said. The vehicle’s driver fled from the scene in an unknown direction.
Jaworski said the man who was struck lived close to the crash site. Highway troopers responded to the scene and took over the investigation.
Deputies were searching for nearby surveillance footage that may have captured the deadly wreck.
No further details were immediately available.