Report details fatal car-bike crash

The driver of a car involved in a fatal collision Sept. 3 “looked down to change the radio station and looked up to see the bicyclist on his windshield,” according to a report released Thursday.

David Armstrong of Green Valley received two citations, for entering a bike lane and for not giving a cyclist space, after the accident that killed 84-year-old Jerome D. Featherman.

The 23-page report, parts of which are redacted, includes narrative from several emergency workers.

According to one deputy, “He (Armstrong) was unsure if he was in the bike lane or not during the collision.”

Another wrote, “He looked away for a second, and then all of a sudden, he had hit the subject on the bicycle.” Later in the report he wrote, “He then stated, I believe he was in the bike lane.”

There were no witnesses, though one man told a deputy he heard “a loud noise” from inside his house, went outside and saw the accident scene on Desert Bell Drive north of Esperanza Boulevard.

Featherman was alive at the scene and likely died en route to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Armstrong, 76, stopped his car after the crash and immediately called 911. Several people were on the scene when workers arrived. He submitted to toxicology tests and was not impaired, according to early readings detailed in the report.

Armstrong briefly spoke to the Green Valley News several days after the incident. The paper has been contacted by several of his friends who said he is devastated, and who describe him and his wife as caring people who never hesitate to extend a helping hand to others.

“It was just an awful accident,” said one, who asked to remain anonymous. “It could have been any of us behind that wheel.”

dshearer@gvnews.com