Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Rider Down. Driver Down.

Bad news. Another Michigan man pays the ultimate price while riding his bike on the road.

John DeStefanis was riding his bicycle to meet friends on Saturday night in Clinton Township, but he never made it.

A driver struck DeStafanis, 41, of Roseville, less than a block from his destination, leaving him on life support in a local hospital.

"They found his body in the middle of Gratiot," said his girlfriend Diane Ferschneider.

"They're talking about maybe taking him off life support tomorrow. And he's a father. He's a good man."

DeStafanis has five children, and friends say that despite a rocky past, he had turned his life around in recent years.

Witnesses say a dark blue sports car struck him. It may now have front-end damage.


It's an old story, right? Hit and run. Cyclist in the hospital and close to dead. There's even the local cyclists arguing whether the rider was an ignorant bike salmon or a "legit" member of the lycra set.

But this one ends a little differently than the typical "Corvette Driver Hits Cyclist and Gets Away With It" story.

With police zeroing in on him, the key suspect in a hit-and-run accident that left a bicyclist brain dead took his own life early Tuesday on the bike path outside of Metro Beach, according to police.

A man riding a bicycle on the bike path found the man’s body about 6:35 a.m. near the intersection of 16 Mile and Jefferson. A shotgun the suspect used to kill himself was found near the body, according to the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.

“He left a couple of notes, one in his truck and one in his home, but I wouldn’t categorize the contents as a confession,” said sheriff’s Capt. Tony Wickersham.

The suspect, a 38-year-old St. Clair Shores resident, was being sought for questioning in an Oct. 4 accident on Gratiot, near Quinn, in Clinton Township that left John Destefanis with critical injuries.


I don't even know what to say. Two lives lost. A cyclist meets his end on the road, and the driver who took him out dies by his own end on a bicycle trail head. WTF?

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