A Portage bicyclist was killed Thursday after being struck by a motorist on
U.S. Highway 20, Portage Police said.
The victim was identified as Virginia R. Strauch, 46. She was pronounced
dead at the scene, and a spokesperson for Porter County Coroner Vicki Deppe
told the Chesterton Tribune today that cause of death was determined
to be blunt force trauma to the head.
According to police, at 5 a.m. Elizabeth A. Lackey, 35, of Portage, was
eastbound on U.S. 20 in her 1996 Ford Taurus, east of Old Porter Road, when
she saw a red flashing light attached to a bicycle on the north side of the
road and ridden by John Strauch, Virginia Strauch’s brother. As she
continued eastbound she then saw a red flashing light attached to a bike
traveling in the middle of her lane and ridden by Virginia Strauch, Lackey
advised police. Lackey swerved left to avoid the bike in the middle of her
lane but was unable to avoid striking it, she advised.
Lackey “said she remembers seeing parts of the bicycle hit her windshield
and she thought the bicyclist went to the right of her,” police said. Lackey
“stopped a short distance ahead and pulled to the shoulder. She ran to the
bicyclist and observed blood coming from the head area. (Lackey) observed
the person to be a female and was not breathing. She contacted 911 and
dispatchers coached her through CPR. As she attempted CPR the brother told
her not to touch his sister but eventually wanted her to. (Lackey) started
chest compressions until help arrived.”
John Strauch advised police that he and his sister were going to work, that
they were both on the north side of U.S. 20, and that his sister crossed to
the south side of the road and was riding east in the eastbound lanes at the
time of the accident.
Police said that Lackey registered a blood alcohol content of .00 percent on
a portable breath test administered at the scene.
The accident remains under investigation.
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