{"id":366640,"date":"2026-06-19T03:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366640\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T03:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:06:09","slug":"fatal-bike-lane-crash-involving-oakland-county-road-commission-truck-prompts-calls-to-rethink-traffic-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366640\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatal bike lane crash involving Oakland County Road Commission truck prompts calls to rethink traffic design"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. \u2013 Residents are raising concerns about biker safety after a 33-year-old Ferndale resident riding an electric bike was killed Thursday in a crash<\/a> involving an Oakland County Road Commission truck on Woodward Avenue.<\/p>\n

The collision happened just before 1 p.m. when the truck was traveling north on Woodward and turned into the parking lot of a vacant Tim Hortons, striking the rider in the bike lane, witnesses said.<\/p>\n

Eric Lees, co-owner of the restaurant Little Ghost, which is located across the street from the crash site, said the crash was captured on his security video.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was turning right into the old Tim Hortons building, and you don\u2019t see a bike until it turned, and then there\u2019s the bike and the person laying in the ground,\u201d Lees said, describing the video. <\/p>\n

Police said the rider was pronounced dead at the scene. The rider\u2019s name was not released.<\/p>\n

The crash renewed residents\u2019 concerns about visibility and safety on Woodward, where bike lanes and on-street parking can make it difficult for drivers to spot cyclists, particularly at intersections.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big, semi-truck like that doesn\u2019t see a little bike, it\u2019s awful,\u201d Lees said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people just need to watch out and take care, and it goes both ways, bikes, cars,\u201d said Carlos Fries, a Little Ghost employee.<\/p>\n

Woodward Avenue has two-way bike lanes, including one lane that runs against traffic. <\/p>\n

Some residents say that configuration, combined with street parking, can create blind spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou kind of think like, oh yeah, a stop sign, people will stop. No,\u201d said Aaron Zaremski, a Ferndale resident. \u201cEven in these protected bike lanes, you still have to look out, especially at intersections, for people not paying attention to stop signs and red lights.\u201d<\/p>\n

On social media<\/a>, residents reacting to the crash called for changes to the corridor.<\/p>\n

One commenter wrote that street parking along Woodward should be removed \u201cfor it to be remotely safe for bikers.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another said the design forces riders to weave around parked cars, \u201cmaking them very hard for drivers to see.\u201d A third described the road diet as having \u201ca video game feel with real life consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very saddened to learn of the crash involving one of our drivers and a bicyclist,\u201d said Craig Bryson, senior communications manager for the Road Commission for Oakland County, in a statement to Local 4. \u201cOur hearts go out to both the family of the cyclist and to our driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident is being investigated by the Oakland County Road Commission and the Ferndale Police Department. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. \u2013 Residents are raising concerns about biker safety after a 33-year-old Ferndale resident riding an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[18800,143,904,6362,145,144],"class_list":["post-366640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ferndale","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-county","tag-oakland-county-road-commission","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}