Stay out of Dodge County, Wisconsin
They’ve had eleven bike fatalities so far this year. The most recent was a hit-from-behind collision. The local police say they have no plans to cite the truck driver who hit the cyclist.
Brandenburg, 67, was riding westbound on County Trunk A near Point Road at about 6 a.m. when his bicycle was struck from behind by a semi truck driven by Richard Boehler, 34, of Manitowoc, according to Dodge County Sheriff’s Department authorities.
Brandenburg was transported to Beaver Dam Community Hospital and later flown by helicopter to Madison were he died from his injuries. He was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, authorities said.
“The Dodge County Crash Investigation Team is continuing the investigation of the crash. It will take some time to piece together what exactly happened,” said Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls. “We are not looking at charging the semi driver at this time.”
Brandenburg’s death is the 11th traffic fatality this year on Dodge County roads compared to eight at this time last year.
As always, our condolences to the friends and family of David Brandenburg.
Update: my ever-alert readers have pointed out my error in this post — there have been eleven, ahem, traffic fatalities, not bike fatalities, in Dodge County. It seemed incomprehensible to me, too.
–Erik Ryberg
July 12th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
That’s eleven traffic fatalities, not bike fatalities.
July 13th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Something tells me this “piecing together of exactly what happened” will result in a finding that Brandenburg unexpectedly veered into the path of the semi. Just a hunch. There’s only one witness, and he’s got a slight interest in how this all turns out.
Not so sure about the “eleven bike fatalities.” That would be incredible for one lightly populated (85K) Wisconsin county. Story mentions an 11th “traffic fatality.” Still, “stay out of Dodge” seems to be good advice.
July 13th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
The semi driver was cited for inattentive driving yesterday.