Police Question Person Of Interest In Fatal Hit-Run Of Bicyclist In Mayfair
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- By most accounts 42-year-old Matthew Matteson should have been safe. He was in the bike lane and had flashers on to alert drivers, yet police say at about 12:45 Friday morning, a driver still crashed into him leaving his mangled bike and his body behind.
Just before 1 a.m., 15th district officers pulled up to the 5800 block of Frankford Avenue and found a man with severe head and upper body trauma.
"I heard a bang and then a screech so I jumped up I thought it was my car getting hit, I looked out the window, I did a double take and there's a man lying there, quarter of his bike over here, the rest of the pieces all over the place. The lights on his bike were still flashing," said John Drissel, a neighbor.
Police say the victim was thrown on the hood of the vehicle for approximately 114 feet before coming to a rest on the highway.
Neighbors say Matteson, worked two jobs, and was likely heading to work when he was hit.
"He would come home later on, get his mountain bike and I would see him leave out the back with his mountain bike and go to work," said the victim's neighbor Kenneth Mitchell.
CBS3 is told there was not much medics could do when he was found. The 42-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. He was less than a mile from his home, police say.
Philadelphia Police also tell Eyewitness News the Buick involved in the crash was located on Van Kirk Street. Officials say the driver does not live where the car was located but ditched it there.
Investigators say it was the driver who led them there.
"This person approached two Septa police officers at 5300 Bustleton Avenue and said he was in an accident last night, he then showed the officers where the car was located," said Captain Patrick Kelly of the Philadelphia Police.
At the time of the accident, investigators found pieces of the likely striking vehicle, including a driver's side view mirror which helped them locate the vehicle.
Authorities say the darkness, plus a bend in the road, make for dangerous conditions for drivers and may have been a factor in the fatal crash.
The driver appears to have been going north before striking the victim, hopping the curb, and mowing down a SEPTA bus stop sign.
Friday's deadly hit and run was the second this week after Tuesday's when a man in Feltonville was killed after someone hit his motorcycle and kept going.
That driver has not been found.
"It's very sad, tough week for the citizens too, it's just a sad situation," Kelly said.
