Bike Rider Killed in Truck Crash

Bicyclist Sandra Martine was traveling cross country with the intention of raising money for poverty stricken children in third-world countries when a tractor trailer driver lost control and hit the sixteen year old girl, Tuesday evening.

Thirty year old Harold Young, lost control of the vehicle when he saw a toddler running towards the street and swerved in an attempt to avoid the infant who was stopped by a family member before she reached the street.

Sandra Martine was riding cross-country with a charitable organization which opened hostels for riders of the group to stay in each night while they traveled cross-country to raise money for the charity of their choice.

According to fellow riders, Sandra was a ray of sunshine during the long ride.

Sandra began the ride in mid-June with the intent of finishing it by the beginning of August. She was a straight A student who felt passionately about the ability of one person to help change the world.

“When Sandra told me she wanted to go on this ride, I was really worried about her but I knew I had to let her go because this was what she really wanted to do,” Sandra’s mother told reporters in and emotional interview.

Trip members told us that Sandra was a bright member of the group the whole ride. She and fellow rider Mike Smith had left the group and headed off to the grocery store to purchase dinner when the trailer hit her.

“Sandra and I had left the hostel and I stopped for a moment to adjust my packs. She continued riding but paused a few yards down to wait for me. I saw the truck swerve over the line and saw it barreling towards her and yelled for her to look out. But the truck was too loud, I think, and she was hit before she or I could even respond,” Mike Smith said.

The trip leader said that this was a first for the organization. “We normally remain on the bike trails with the exception of trips to the store at night. It’s a terrible tragedy and will now travel in large groups all the time.”

Smith, as well as residents in the area, called authorities immediately but Sandra was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver says he had the sincerest of sympathies for the family of the child and will do all that he can to help. Right now, it does not appear as though any charges will be pressed against him, although a court order may come out for the families of infants on major roads in the town to put up three foot fences in the front of the house to prevent any more accidents like this one.

*This is a fictional story and derived from my imagination.