A bicyclist died of injuries sustained when he was struck Monday morning by an SUV on East Porter Avenue, the Chesterton Police Department is reporting.
The victim has been identified as 65-year-old Salvador Mujica, of Porter.
According to the Chesterton Police Department, at 7:30 a.m. a 54-year-old motorist from Port St. Lucie, Fla., was northbound on Ind. 49 when he began “experiencing a medical emergency” and turned right onto eastbound East Porter Ave., where “he blacked out.”
The vehicle veered off East Porter Avenue to the south, continued eastbound through the grass near the soccer fields, then crossed Dickinson Road, the CPD said. The SUV was still off the roadway when it passed five bicyclists also eastbound on East Porter Ave but then re-entered the roadway and struck Mujica, the sixth bicyclist, who was leading the group, CPD said.
At that point, the SUV crossed both lanes of East Porter Avenue and traveled through a bean field before coming to rest in a yard on Sawgrass Drive in the Villages of Sand Creek, nearly 500 yards from the bicyclists, the CPD said.
Mujica succumbed to his injuries at Northwest Health-Porter, the CPD said, while the motorist was treated at the Franciscan Alliance ER department and subsequently released, the CPD said.
Toxicology test results are pending and no further information is available at this time, the CPD said.
Anyone who may have witnessed this accident and has not yet spoken to officers is encouraged to contact Cpl. Ryan Miller at 219-926-1136.