Oh crap that sucks. Hate reading this stuff. Condolences to the families and friends.

Does anyone know what the road is like where they were hit? Is there a shoulder, bike lane, not well travelled, etc?

It is so sad. It's pretty jarring to see the bike split in half in the photo.

Crazy thing is both sides of his car are messed up. Looks like he must have split the two riders or something. Crazy and so sad.

My deepest condolences to the family & friends of the one we lost. Best wishes for a full & speedy recovery for his friend.

Let's be careful out there.

Brian

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Fortunately (at least in past years) the roads are completely (or almost completely) closed to traffic.

The road is a four-lane highway with a painted divider. Where they were hit is kinda out in the boonies, with a few industrial/commercial facilities off of it, and approaching a subdivision. It's a 55 mph zone, the shoulder is just like it is in the picture for miles and miles, about 6 feet wide. Not heavily traveled but little police presence out there so a lot of drivers speed. There are a couple slow curves, but the road is pretty straight and you can see pretty far ahead while driving.

This sucks...I gotta tell you I love riding but I have had so many close calls I have moved 75% of my rides to the trainer...this could happen to any of us. Peace to the families.

The majority of the damage being on the drivers side is what is weird here.

If the cyclists were riding 1' - 2' into the road and not on the shoulder (which most people do in this area) the driver would almost have to be totally on the shoulder for that kind of damage. UNLESS, the rider was turning around or something like that.

Yeah, I kind of wondered about the rider turning as well. I know that I have made several poor decisions to turn around with out fully realizing how quickly traffic was approaching that would have been totally my fault.

Wow, hope those that survived are OK... condolences to the family of the one lost.

I know this rarely happens, but that's the main reason I don't pre-ride courses or get on my bike at all at race locations. I'm not familiar with the area, and road conditions when it's not closed to traffic, may not be the best for a training rides. Risk to benefit ratio just isn't there for me.

Stay safe out there everyone.

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Another pic of car

So little details at this point that it could be many different things. It's totally possible that the group had a touch of wheels, guys went down (or lost control) into the lane of traffic and the car simply didn't have time to avoid hitting the guys who crashed.

Sad for the one that was lost.

Actually, what makes the most sense just judging from that picture, is that the bike riders were in the bike lane, one near the edge and one near the rumble strips, and that the car struck both. Although, the article says a "group", so probably more than just two riders.

I will say, though, it's a pretty serious impact for a body to dent the roof that near the pillar.

John

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If a car hits you on it's passenger side, you're not going to fly over to the driver side, and there is no way you'll also hit the driver side front bumper too. It looks like the car tried to split the riders. Which is somewhat impossible to comprehend with out the driver being a complete asshole and this being an act of anti-cycling road rage. It will be interesting to see where the riders were? On the road or on the shoulder. Not that either way make what the driver did any better/worse.

True. The drivers side the rider clearly rolled up the hood into the windshield/roof. I would be astonished if that wasn't the rider that was killed, because that level of damage to the car would take some doing. What a stupid tragedy, I really hope that there was no intent behind it.

John

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and where the car is in the picture doesn't really tell much about where the accident occurred, just where the car stopped after the driver probably swerved some and then I'm guessing it was also moved out of the road at some point. Based on there being no traffic around it, no cops etc, I'm guessing that was a bit after the actual hit.

The story says a group of cyclists, so I'm guessing there were more than 2 riding.

The entire road was closed for a while.

And the group was three, two men (one 36 and one 40) and one woman. both men were hit

We were driving the bike course coming back from a swamp tour in Slidell. We came on the scene about 12:20-ish. So about 20 minutes after the crash accdg to the news report. I recall one large fire truck and at least two cruisers, but unfortunately also saw the rider lying in the middle of the road. Uncovered and lying in basically the middle of the 2 eastbound lanes, in a very strange and unnatural position, clearly deceased Emergency personnel standing around, not sure why he wasn't covered up. He had bib top on but no jersey or it was pulled away. I have to say I am in a bit of shock then and more as I think of it. I have never seen something like that before and I can't seem to unsee it. I think of my wife waiting back at the hotel while I go out to "ride the course" and getting that call

At packet pickup a volunteer said he knew someone had died but no the identity. He said they all assume its a visitor as no locals would be riding that road

Road is as described. Wide open, good shoulder, fairly wide, no obstructions.

Really unnerved about this.

This is the road in question:







Yeah, our tri community is pretty small and everyone I know has been beating the bushes trying to see if we can't find out who this is, and nobody seems to know. Almost assuredly out-of-towners.

I'm seeing Facebook posts that say, 'I'm okay guys, it wasn't me", etc. Crazy!!!

update from local news, but still no specific details on what happened:

"Police said the driver of a Chevy Cruze was traveling in the right lane eastbound on Chef Highway when, for reasons unknown, he rear-ended the two cyclists who were also in that lane."

Especially since the first picture of the car shows it stopped with 100% of the car in the lane of traffic.

This is so sad. Condolences to the family. I have had so many close calls in NOLA, but I tend to stay out of the suburbs, where it looks like this accident occurred. NOLA, even though it is trying to change, is not a very biker-friendly town in general.