Drunk Driving Bicycle Accident Claims Life

Brooksville, FLIt's bad enough that a bicycle is no match for a car—thus the bicycle rider is always at a disadvantage. However when a vehicle driver is acting irresponsibly, he is in effect wielding a weapon that can cause far worse than a bicycle accident injury. Indeed, a bicycle accident can take a life, as it did in Florida when a bike accident claimed the life of a 17-year-old boy.

It happened a while ago—back in May just south of Brooksville. Scott Avery was a Nature Coast Technical High School student, and at 17 had his entire life ahead of him. Also, at 17—an age when most boys become car-mad and can't wait to claim the keys and commandeer the family car—Avery was doing the environmentally-responsible thing and riding his bike when he was mowed down from behind by a drunk driver.

The bike accident happened on the night of May 31st. Florida Highway Patrol report that the youth was riding his bike east on Powell Road, near Gloucester Road just a bit south of Brooksville when he was struck from behind by a two-door 1997 Saturn traveling in the same direction.

The driver of the car, 37-year-old Leo Salvato, was driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol content of 0.158—almost twice the legal limit—after the administering of a Breathalyzer test at the time of the collision.

What makes this case even more galling is that Salvato initially fled the scene. He was, however apprehended by police within two miles of the crash site. Not only was the man found to be driving under the influence and stands accused of leaving the scene, but it has been reported that Salvato has had numerous prior run-ins with the law. Among them at least eight prior arrests in Hernando on charges of battery, criminal mischief, driving under the influence and knowingly driving with a suspended license.

When he fled the scene of the bicycle accident, he left Avery to die on the road. The boy did, indeed die at the scene.

It is not known if Avery had lights on his bicycle, or whether or not he had working reflectors. It was also not reported as to the state of the weather at the time, the actual time of the collision or whether the boy was riding on the pavement, or the shoulder.

Regardless, a blood alcohol reading of 0.158 suggests that Salvato was impaired and as such, lights and other factors would not have had a significant impact. A drunk driver is a danger not only to himself but also to everyone else on the road, and especially a cyclist.

Salvato was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol and charged with driving with a suspended license resulting in death, leaving the scene of a traffic crash resulting in death and careless driving. He was further charged November 5th with DUI manslaughter.

One has to wonder if an individual with so many prior arrests might have been duly convicted on those charges—and if so, when does the payment of one's debt to society become clouded by repeat behavior that appears to suggest the perpetrator of the alleged offences had not learned his lesson?

If it had been determined that the man was a serial drunk driver, with the proven capacity to drive not only under the influence but also to drive without a valid license, perhaps greater steps might have been taken to protect the man from himself, and to protect the remainder of society from him.

A young boy may be alive today. Instead, a life has been lost and at least two court cases are surely to follow: one, to give this scum his due, and subsequently a bicycle accident injury lawsuit. Compensatory damages will never bring a life back. But it will help send a message that you can't keep thumbing your nose at the law, and at moral responsibility, and forever keep getting away with it…