{"id":388807,"date":"2026-09-03T00:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/388807\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T00:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:50:12","slug":"cyclist-critically-injured-in-rickenbacker-causeway-crash-key-biscayne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/388807\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclist critically injured in Rickenbacker Causeway crash | Key Biscayne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly every Saturday for 15 years, Key Biscayne’s Carlos Mendia would meet his brother-in-law coming from Coral Gables at the entrance of the Rickenbacker Causeway to ride on their bicycles all the way to Starbucks in the Village during a 30-mile route of loops overlooking the Miami skyline.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday, however, was different — and tragic.<\/p>\n

Gilbert Beauperthuy, 63, was going to ride alone this time and was on his way until the driver of a vehicle allegedly swerved into the green bike lane at about 8:30 a.m., smashing the bicycle with enough impact to shatter the windshield and tossing the rider onto the pavement.<\/p>\n

Beauperthuy remained in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital as of Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

“He is getting excellent care, but it is tragic,” Mendia told Islander News. “He will be handicapped, paralyzed. We are all hoping for the best.”<\/p>\n

Mendia had reached out for help from the public and received several statements from witnesses and even a post-collision video showing the damage to the vehicle and his brother-in-law being wheeled on a gurney.<\/p>\n

“The public has been extremely helpful,” Mendia said.<\/p>\n

Just two months ago, Mendia raised concerns in an Islander News story<\/a> of the dangers arising from packs of bicyclists and speeding vehicles on the causeway and, especially, on the roadways leading in and out of the Village.<\/p>\n

“I blame the county for not doing something, for the speed,” Mendia said. “It’s not the first time we’ve had issues.”<\/p>\n

Now, he has to deal with this tragic event, one that will take quite awhile, if ever, to recover from.<\/p>\n

“He’s (Gilbert) an incredible individual and doesn’t deserve what happened to him,” Mendia said.<\/p>\n

Miami Police officials told Islander News they would release a police report upon the conclusion of their investigation.<\/p>\n

Mendia is asking the public for any additional information or dash-cam videos by calling or texting (305) 479-6889.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly every Saturday for 15 years, Key Biscayne’s Carlos Mendia would meet his brother-in-law coming from Coral Gables…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[53800,59044,155612,1793,126,123,125,124,4990],"class_list":["post-388807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-cycling","tag-cyclist","tag-cyclist-critically-injured","tag-injury","tag-key-biscayne","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-rickenbacker-causeway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}