15-year-old boy dies after bicycle-vehicle accident

Posted under Burnsville,News on Friday 14 May 2010 at 9:56 am

A 15-year-old boy hit by a car while riding his bicycle in Burnsville last Thursday died Saturday morning of head injuries, according to media reports.

Tejas Malakapalli was riding through the intersection of Cliff Road and River Hills Drive shortly before 7 p.m. when the accident occurred, according to police.

The vehicle that struck him had a green light, which two witnesses confirmed, police said.

The driver was eastbound on Cliff in the right lane, entering the intersection. Malakapalli was crossing from the north to the south on the west side of the intersection.

The accident “truly stresses the importance for both riders and drivers alike to follow the traffic laws,” police said in a news release last week.

Drugs and alcohol are not believed to be a factor,  police said.

4 Comments »

  1. Comment by david nystuen — May 18, 2010 @ 9:54 am

    Was the boy drinking or on drugs? If the car driver had the green light, why this comment from the police? Start enforcing bike riders to obey the laws, which so many seem to ignore.

  2. Comment by Jennifer — May 18, 2010 @ 11:44 am

    Please be respectful of the friends and family of the boy killed. Any story of this nature mentions weather drugs or alcohol were found to be a factor or not. It’s journalistic protocol. Kids and teens get excited and often don’t pay as much attention as their parents would like. This is a terrible thing that has happened, but it was an accident. We all do careless things as children, and I guarantee, Mr. Nystuen, that you did too. The only difference is that we did not die for our childish mistakes.

  3. Comment by greg — May 18, 2010 @ 8:57 pm

    under further investigation, it came to light that the stop lights are off and do not allow for enough time for a pedestrian to cross the street. the city of Burnsville is going to be in some hot water!

  4. Comment by JoAnn — May 20, 2010 @ 10:43 am

    I want to add to greg’s comment: — The semaphore crossing signal for pedestrians/bicyclists at that intersection was way, and I mean way off when I took a stroll about a week ago. The ‘person walking’ image displayed for about (one thousand one – one thousand two – one thousand three – one thousand four and then turned red-alert mode) as I was crossing from north to south. I had to scamper, hustle, half-jog, look over my shoulder and side-to-side because I didn’t know if I would make it before traffic would start to move.


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