JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Data from the state shows there were 121 bicycle crashes in St. Johns County this year.<\/p>\n
Three people died in those crashes, and 114 people were hurt.<\/p>\n
State records online only go back to 2017, when there were 83 bike crashes. But this year marks the first time the county has reached more than 100 bicycle crashes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than 100 is shocking to me,\u201d parent Inci Ruzybayab said.<\/p>\n
Ruzybayab is a mom with two kids, and she said bike riding comes with strict rules.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey are only allowed to ride within the community,\u201d Ruzybayab said.<\/p>\n She has an 11-year-old boy who owns a regular bike, and she said her safety concerns are growing with all the bike crashes.<\/p>\n Action News Jax spoke with Brian Benwick, who is a member of the North Florida Bicycle Club and does advocacy work for the group.<\/p>\n He said crashes can be prevented with safer route choices, like using bike lanes that are 4-feet wide rather than sharing a lane with cars.<\/p>\n \u201cCyclists, kids, or adults should take care in plotting safe routes,\u201d Benwick said. \u201cPick a road that is, by design, safer to use as a biker.\u201d<\/p>\n He said you should always make sure you are visible to others by wearing bright clothing, but he also said riding habits can make a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cWe recommend limiting your cycling at night, during the rain, fog, because you are invisible almost,\u201d Benwick said.<\/p>\n Cyclists of all ages, he said, are urged to stay alert.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to ride more defensively, scanning our surroundings every 5 or 8 seconds,\u201d Benwick said. \u201cIf traffic gets too busy and you are the cyclist, pull over, wait for the traffic light to change. Be patient. We always say if you gamble with your safety, you are betting your life.\u201d<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Data from the state shows there were 121 bicycle crashes in St. Johns County this…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":483808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[12189,13826,5229,218867,3188,723,11561,7310,425,119915,122675,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-483807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-alexis_clevinger","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-department_of_highway_safety_and_motor_vehicles","12":"tag-fl","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-jack","15":"tag-jacksonville","16":"tag-local","17":"tag-saint_johns_county","18":"tag-st-_johns_county","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115817652093110832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}