Three Bicyclists Killed By Motorists In Three Days In Tampa Bay

The Christmas weekend in Tampa Bay was a deadly one for bicyclists.

A bicyclist was killed Friday, Saturday and Sunday -- three dead bicyclists in three days.

Motorists killed bicyclists on both sides of the Bay.

Friday in St. Petersburg: A motorist was charged with DUI manslaughter for the Friday hit-and-run death of a bicyclist in St. Petersburg. The driver of the motorized vehicle killed the bicyclist at 2:15 am. Read the Times story here.

Saturday near Brandon: A Plant City bicyclist riding his bike across U.S. 301 just north of State Road 60 was killed by a pickup at 6:40 am Saturday near Brandon. Read the Trib story here.

Sunday in Dover in Hillsborough County: A hit-and-run motorist killed a bicyclist on Sydney Dover Road at 6 pm Sunday. Read the Times story here.

The stories are breaking news items with not too much information. But if you look at the times of the motorists striking and killing the bicyclists, you will see that there was little or no daylight -- Friday at 2:15 am, Saturday at 6:40 am and Sunday at 6 pm.

This a reminder to light you and your bicycle up like a Christmas tree or a menorah so that you have the best chance to be seen by motorists when the daylight is dwindling or non-existent.

In two of the three cases this weekend, the motorist struck and killed bicyclists and drove away. That gives you a little sense of the character of the motorists around here.

In 2010, there were a dozen bicyclists killed by motorists in Hillsborough and with the two killed bicyclists in Hillsborough over the holiday weekend, the 2011 bicyclist death number hit eight. In 2011, the Pinellas County bicyclist death count hit 10 with the hit-and-run DUI manslaughter case in St. Petersburg.