A 39-year-old East China Township man died after his bicycle collided with an SUV at the intersection of Fred W. Moore Highway and Mayer Road in Casco Township on Thursday afternoon, according to the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said the bicyclist died at the scene. The cause of the collision was not immediately clear.
The crash was reported through a 911 call to St. Clair County Central Dispatch, as reported by CBS News Detroit. The bicyclist had been traveling eastbound on Fred W. Moore Highway at the time of the crash. The driver of the SUV, a 26-year-old man from St. Clair, was also heading eastbound on the same road in a 2013 Cadillac SUV, per the outlet’s report.
Driver Stayed at Scene, Cooperated With Deputies
The SUV driver was not injured in the crash, the station’s report states. He remained at the scene and cooperated with officers, according to deputies. Richmond Lenox EMS and the Richmond Fire Department both responded to assist at the scene, per the same account.
Fred W. Moore Highway was closed for several hours while investigators worked the scene and crews completed cleanup, the report notes. The St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office said it is continuing to investigate the crash, though no further details on a possible cause have been released.
Other Bicycle Crashes Have Struck the Area
Casco Township has seen bicyclist-involved crashes before. In July 2023, a 50-year-old Casco Township man was seriously injured when his bicycle collided with an SUV on County Line Road, on the Interstate 94 overpass just past the Macomb-St. Clair county line, according to The Voice. The driver in that crash, a 43-year-old Casco Township woman, was not injured, and multiple agencies responded to the scene.
A separate, unrelated intersection in the area has drawn safety scrutiny in the past. In January 2016, 17-year-old Casco Township resident Grace Achatz died in a crash at Wadhams Road and Fred Moore Highway after her vehicle, traveling southbound, collided with a pickup heading westbound, according to The Times Herald. St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon said that crash occurred at about 5 p.m., and The Macomb Daily reported the intersection was closed for more than two hours afterward. Following that fatal crash, China and St. Clair township supervisors asked the county road commission to study safety options at the Wadhams Road corner, where SEMCOG data at the time showed the intersection averaged about five crashes a year, making it the most dangerous in both townships. That data also showed no fatal crashes there between 2010 and 2014, and officials discussed commissioning an outside safety study estimated to cost $9,000 to $10,000.
Statewide, bicyclist-involved crashes and fatalities both rose in 2024 compared with the prior year, according to figures from the Michigan State Police. No information has been provided on whether those broader trends relate to the circumstances of Thursday’s crash in Casco Township, and the cause of the collision remains under investigation.
