Palm Beach County's Trauma Hawk Air Ambulance landed at Gulf Stream Golf Club following a Thursday morning crash on State Road A1A involving a group of bicyclists and an SUV, with three reported to be trauma cases. The road was closed between George Bush Boulevard and Golfview Drive for several hours, but has since reopened. Photo provided by Delray Beach Fire Rescue
Related: Gulf Stream: A1A bike club ‘tragedy’ leaves couple fighting for their lives
By Anne Geggis
An early-morning crash involving an SUV driver and seven cyclists — three of them described as trauma cases — closed State Road A1A from George Bush Boulevard to Golfview Drive for a number of hours early Jan. 4, according to Delray Beach Fire Rescue.
The Florida Highway Patrol, which is investigating the 6:45 a.m. incident in the 2800 block of North Ocean Boulevard in Gulf Stream, said late in the day that a group of eight cyclists were riding abreast of each other when a 2020 Kia Sol, driven by a 77-year-old Lantana woman, crossed the center line and collided into them. The crash occured about 20 minutes before sunrise.
According to Delray Beach Fire Rescue spokesman Ted White, crews responded to the scene to find six cyclists and the Kia's driver injured. One other cyclist did not have to go to the hospital, White said, but described some of the bikers’ injuries as “severe.” FHP’s report said there were eight cyclists in the group and only mentioned two injured in its report, including a 43-year-old Boca Raton man.
He was “separated from his bicycle and tumbled/rolled onto the northbound lane of SR-A1A where he came to a rest,” the FHP report says.
Palm Beach County’s Trauma Hawk Air Ambulance helicopter landed at the adjacent Gulf Stream Golf Club course and airlifted an unknown number to Delray Medical Center; other victims were taken to Bethesda Hospital East in Boynton Beach, White said.
Bicycling in Palm Beach County has proven a more dangerous mode of transport in the past year than in recent years. According to state records as of Dec. 28, there have been 670 bike crashes in Palm Beach County in 2023, including 11 fatalities. In 2022, there were 486 bike crashes and 14 fatalities. The county recorded 424 bike crashes (eight fatalities) in 2021 and 373 (12 fatalities) in 2020.
News of the crash had Diane Pohanka sick to her stomach. The Gulf Stream woman, profiled in a recent Coastal Star article on the devastating effects of such accidents, knows about trauma alerts. She is still in recovery from a pickup truck hitting her as she rode her bicycle on A1A in Boca Raton last August.
The site of the new crash was less than a mile from her home and one she’s biked hundreds of times.
Seeing Delray Beach Fire Rescue’s photo of a trauma alert helicopter on the nearby golf course had her playing out various scenarios of how it happened in her mind.
“I’m assuming that it’s on this little stretch that’s part of the golf course,” she said. “There’s no give in the road at all there. There’s no room for bicyclists.”
She suffered broken bones that involved surgery, metal rods and grueling physical therapy sessions.
For Christmas, Santa brought her a bicycle rack for her car so one day she can bike some trails. But she’s sworn off ever biking along the ocean highway ever again — in its current state.
“Biking is just not the same as it was — there’s too many distractions with cell phones and everything,” she said.
She is, however, heartened by an item on Thursday’s Delray Beach City Commission agenda: A workshop includes an update on plans for a bicycle pedestrian master plan that includes A1A in the area targeted for improvements.
Mostly, though, she can’t stop thinking about those in the accident.
“I'm just praying for all these bikers,” she said. “I just know what the trauma part is and that means that we're pretty injured.”
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