Saturday, November 15, 2008

Bicyclist Killed Near Dog Track Was a Tour de Pizza Employee

Bill Addler, owner of Revolution Bicycles in St. Pete, informs me that the 20-year-old bicyclist killed in front of the Derby Lane dog track on Gandy Avenue in St. Petersburg was a worker at the Tour de Pizza pizzeria in the Publix shopping center on 40th Street and 38th Avenue.

Here is Bill's email to me:

"The young 20 year old that was killed in front of the dog track, you all may have met him, his name is Frank and he worked for Matt at Tour De Pizza. I just learned this myself today from Matt, and he informed me what had happened. (Matt is the owner of Tour de Pizza).

"Frank was a good kid and a very good employee for Matt. You may have seen his bike out on the bike rack at the pizza place (brown fixed gear). Unfortunately he was not wearing a helmet which may or may not have saved his life, we will never know.

"But I would like to think it would have. In fact we just had a guy walk in today with a Cannondale that was split in half after swerving to avoid a young girl on the bike trail near 83rd ave. He ran right into a post and crushed his helmet; he however survived to ride again (with new frame, fork, etc)."

Listen, every bicycle fatality is a major jolt. If you go out and bike on the roads around here, I strongly urge -- wear a helmet, bike with traffic, comply with traffic laws, don't run red lights, have white and red lights when biking at night and bike defensively.

2 comments:

Peter said...

how did he die? just fell off his bike?

killed _near_ dog track, not _by_ it.

Tour De Pizza said...

Frankie was hit from behind by a car who did not see his front or rear lights.