NHL player and brother killed on their bikes by drunk driver the night before their sister’s wedding
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NHL hockey player and New Jersey native Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, have been identified as the two bicyclists who were struck and killed by a vehicle on Thursday night in Salem County, New Jersey.
Police say the driver who struck the brothers is suspected of being under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.
The Columbus Blue Jackets, as well as New Jersey state troopers, confirmed the passing of the Gaudreau brothers Friday morning.
The crash happened around 8:30 p.m. on Pennsville Auburn Road near Stumpy Lane in Oldmans Township.
Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29, were traveling north on County Route 551, close to the line on the side of the roadway.
Police say 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins, of Woodstown, New Jersey, was traveling north on County Route 551 in a Jeep Grand Cherokee when he allegedly attempted to pass a slower-moving sedan and SUV.
Police say Higgins entered the southbound lanes of the roadway, and passed the sedan.
When he attempted to reenter the northbound lanes, police say the SUV in front of him moved into the middle of the roadway, splitting the north and south lanes in order to safely pass two bicyclists on the right side of the road.
Higgins then attempted to pass the SUV on the right and struck the Gaudreau brothers from behind, troopers said.
The Gaudreau brothers died from their injuries, according to state police.
Through the investigation, officials say Higgins is suspected of being under the influence of alcohol and has been charged with two counts of death by auto, state police say.
If that’s not sufficiently horrifying:
I drive my kids out to a sports facility in Longmont, Colorado, which is a few miles north of Boulder. The highway we take features a memorial on the side of the road, at the spot where cyclist Magnus White was struck and killed by a driver last year.
The driver in that case was apparently not intoxicated or texting, but according to the DA’s theory of the case (she recently rejected a plea deal and is going to trial) fell asleep at the wheel before swerving off the road and hitting White.
The insouciance with which we as a culture accept what car drivers do to pedestrians, cyclists, other drivers, and themselves, is remarkable precisely because it’s so taken for granted. If self-driving cars were to eventually become mandatory and ended up killing 4,500 people per year — this would represent a 90% decline in traffic fatalities — they would be treated as massively dangerous and defective products.