A 43-year-old bicyclist was seriously injured when she was hit by a Santa Maria city bus just before 6 p.m. on April 2.
The Route 7 Santa Maria Area Transit bus was headed west on East McCoy Lane when it collided with the bicyclist near the corner of Caballero Lane, according to Mark van de Kamp, public information officer for the Santa Maria City Manager’s Office.
The cyclist was riding in the bike lane on McCoy when she was hit, van de Kamp said in a media statement on April 3.
The bus was not damaged but was taken out of service by the Santa Maria Police Department immediately following the incident, van de Kamp said. It was inspected by officers and released to Santa Maria Area Transit on April 3.
Due to the pending investigation, it is unclear what consequences the bus driver could be facing, Van de Kamp said in an email to the Sun.
The woman, whose identity has not been released, was transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital via helicopter with serious injuries, according to Sgt. Jesus Valle of the Santa Maria Police Department.
Valle said it is unclear what caused the incident, which is still being investigated by the department’s traffic bureau.
Although Valle said the intersection of East McCoy and Caballero lanes is not known to be particularly dangerous, Santa Maria’s roads in general are statistically dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists.
The California Office of Traffic Safety ranked Santa Maria as the 14th worst of 57 California cities its size for cyclist collisions. Thirty-four cyclists were killed or injured by vehicles in 2015, the most recent data available, according to data compiled by the Office of Traffic Safety. Thirty-eight pedestrians were killed or injured by vehicles that same year.
This article appears in Apr 5-12, 2018.
