{"id":56677,"date":"2025-11-22T13:57:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T13:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/56677\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T13:57:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T13:57:31","slug":"friends-identify-jacksonville-man-killed-in-motorcycle-crash-action-news-jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/56677\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends identify Jacksonville man killed in motorcycle crash \u2013 Action News Jax"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Friends of the Jacksonville man killed in a motorcycle crash in the Allendale area on Monday night have now identified him only to Action News Jax as 38-year-old Keith Gates. <\/p>\n

Michael Lykins, Gates\u2019 close friend and roommate, said he got a call Monday night that Keith hadn\u2019t answered his phone, around the same time he heard about a motorcycle crash at the intersection of Edgewood Avenue and 12th Street. <\/p>\n

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n

He said he rushed to the crash site just in time to find his friend lying dead in the street. <\/p>\n

\u201cI got there and I just yelled his name. He was lifeless,\u201d said Lykins, \u201cI was in shock, I was trying to make myself believe that it wasn\u2019t him.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office reported on Monday night that a man on a motorcycle had been killed in a crash at around 7:55 PM. JSO said the motorcycle driver was heading north on Edgewood when he ran into an SUV that turned in front of him. <\/p>\n

JSO said the two people inside the SUV weren\u2019t severely hurt, but the motorcycle driver, identified as Gates, was killed in the crash. <\/p>\n

Lykins said Gates wasn\u2019t just a fellow rider and close friend, but a gifted mechanic who never turned down a call for help. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not right, because he\u2019s gone,\u201d Lykins said. <\/p>\n

Lykins tells Action News Jax he has lost other friends in motorcycle crashes, but this is the last one he ever hopes to hear about. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want no more friends taken from me. I\u2019m tired of meeting new friends and then they\u2019re just gone,\u201d said Lykins. <\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n

JSO said this was the 40th motorcycle crash death in Duval County this year. Action News Jax found that this has been the deadliest year for Duval County motorcycle riders in the last three years. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles<\/a> reported 36 motorcycle crash deaths in Duval County in 2024, 32 in 2023, and 31 in 2022. <\/p>\n

Lykins told Action News Jax he is unsure if he will keep riding for that much longer, now that he\u2019s suffering the loss of another friend. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have what I want, but I just don\u2019t have my friend. It\u2019s crazy, man,I still don\u2019t believe it, but I know he\u2019s gone,\u201d said Lykins. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

38-year-old Keith Gates <\/p>\n

Lykins has scheduled a memorial motorcycle ride-along in Keith\u2019s memory that is set to start on Saturday, November 22nd, at 1:00 p.m. at the parking lot next to Friendship Fountain. He\u2019s also started a fundraiser to help pay for Keith\u2019s funeral services, which can be found here.<\/a> <\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n

Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Friends of the Jacksonville man killed in a motorcycle crash in the Allendale area on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,5228,9286,24468,639,3882,35072,14359,14357,35076,9287,969,19388,116,118,117,6458,1872,35075,35071,35078,35074,35077,634,35073],"class_list":{"0":"post-56677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-action_news_jacks","10":"tag-ben","11":"tag-downtown_jacksonville","12":"tag-duval_county","13":"tag-edgewood","14":"tag-edgewood_avenue","15":"tag-finn","16":"tag-finn_carlin","17":"tag-florida_department_of_highway_safety_motor_vehicles","18":"tag-friendship_fountain","19":"tag-jack","20":"tag-jack_finn_carlin","21":"tag-jacksonville","22":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","23":"tag-jacksonville-news","24":"tag-jacksonville_sheriffs_office","25":"tag-jso","26":"tag-keith","27":"tag-keith_gates","28":"tag-lichen","29":"tag-likekins","30":"tag-likens","31":"tag-local","32":"tag-michael_likins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56677","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=56677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}