Bicyclist killed in hit-and-run accident

OCALA - At 1:18 a.m. Wednesday, a motorist made a gruesome discovery at Northwest 77th Street and Northwest 19th Avenue Road: a 44-year-old bicyclist, dressed in a blue shirt, gray pant and brown shoes, lying beside his Trek bicycle in a pool of blood.

The bicyclist, Larry E. Nelson, who lived nearby, had been killed by a hit-and-run driver.

Sheriff’s deputies say the woman called 911, and deputies arrived at the scene at 1:27 a.m. Emergency Medical Services Alliance personnel then arrived and pronounced him dead.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers said an unknown vehicle was heading east in the eastbound lane on Northwest 77th Street, while the bicyclist was traveling west in the same lane. The vehicle’s right front then struck the bicyclist.

Investigators estimated the crash may have occurred around 12:30 a.m., but the man’s

body was not discovered until the woman called for help. It was not known where Nelson was going or why he was out.

“He rode his bike up and down the roadway every day. He was a friendly person who helped people in the neighborhood,” said Jimmy Johnson, whose home faces Northwest 77th Street. H said he knew Nelson for many years.

Johnson said he was about to go to bed when his wife told him she saw lights outside. He went out and saw the sheriff’s deputies.

What began as a quiet month for traffic fatalities in a deadly year – with only one death, on Aug. 5 - has quickly worsened. Three Marion County traffic deaths had been reported over a period of about 12 hours.

At about 12:40 p.m. Tuesday, Aymee Lynn Tanis, 33, of Belleview, was putting

gasoline in her 1990 Ford Bronco beside Interstate 75 in Ocala when she was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer.

Then, at 4:23 p.m., Ocala police received word that Johnny Simmons, 22, of Ocala, had died as a result of a motorcycle crash that occurred a week earlier on Northeast 25th Avenue.

Wednesday morning’s highway fatality is the 65th for the year. The number is rapidly approaching total number of traffic deaths for all of last year, when 69 died on Marion County’s roadways. In 2003, there 119 traffic deaths; 72 of those at the end of August. All of last year, OPD had seven traffic deaths; this year, there have been six so far.

Anyone with any information about the hit-and-run accident can call Cpl. Daniel DeWeese at 352-732-1263 or Crime Stoppers at 368-STOP, or visit http;//ocalacrimestoppers.com.

Austin L. Miller can be reached at austin.miller@starbanner.com or 352-867-4118.