By Luis Perez, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, September 18, 2010
ST. PETERSBURG — A 49-year-old bicyclist who was badly injured after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver died Saturday, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Neil Alan Smith, of St. Petersburg, was pronounced dead at Bayfront Medical Center at 8:30 a.m., police said. Smith had been taken to the hospital on Sunday, Sept. 12, with life-threatening head injuries.
Just blocks from his home, Smith was pedaling south with the flow of traffic along Fourth Street near 73rd Avenue N around 11 p.m. on a bicycle with front and rear lights when a midsized sedan struck him from behind, police said. The impact threw Smith off the bike and he hit his head on the base of a light pole.
A dishwasher at the Crab Shack Restaurant, at 11400 Gandy Blvd., Smith was riding home after work, employees there said. Authorities said Smith is survived by a sister in Haverhill, Mass.
The runaway vehicle had four doors and dark tinted windows and could be a Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable, possibly from the mid 1990s, police said. There should be damage to the right front fender and hood.
Anyone with information is asked to call the St. Petersburg Police Department at (727) 893-7780.