Hit-and-run truck driver arrested after leaving five cyclists dead

Five cyclists died and another four were left seriously hurt by a hit-and-run truck driver, authorities say. The group was hit on a street in Cooper Township, near Kalamazoo, western Michigan, in the US, minutes after the truck was seen to be driving erratically. The truck driver, a 50-year-old man, fled the scene but was arrested a short time later.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims. I can’t even begin to imagine what they’re going through.

Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeffrey Getting

Authorities began receiving calls about a blue pickup truck about 30 minutes before the crash, said Kalamazoo prosecutor Jeffrey Getting. Concerns were “about the manner in which that vehicle was being driven,” Getting added, without addressing possible reasons for the erratic driving. Several agencies were searching for the pickup when the first report of the bicyclists getting hit came in just after 6:30 p.m., he said. No officers were actively pursuing the truck at the time it crashed. The bicyclists had been riding as a group. Their names and ages were not immediately released because family members were still being notified. The group included men and women but no children, as an official had said previously.

I saw a bunch of bikes hit the front of his truck and a couple of them flew.

Markus Eberhard

Kalamazoo cyclists