Miami Cyclist, 58, Plunges to His Death Trying to Cross Rising Drawbridge

A Miami cyclist has been killed trying to cross a rising drawbridge.

Fred Medina, 58, plunged to his death on Wednesday morning trying to beat the South Miami Avenue Bridge as it ascended.

The accident occurred at 6 AM when Medina and a friend were out for an early morning bike ride, as he did almost every day; they approached the bridge just as the safety barriers descended and the warning siren sounded.

Police think he ignored the warnings believing he could make it across in time. His friend did — but Medina didn't.

As the gap opened up, he got stuck on the ascending roadway. He tried to hold on as long as he could, but lost his grip and slid back down the rising bridge, falling through the gap to his death.

Officers found him unresponsive on a concrete platform below the bridge.

"He tried to overtake the opening," City of Miami PD spokesperson Kenia Fallat told the Miami Herald. "This appears to be accidental."

His friend Stephen Tannenbaum told WSVN that their cycling companion, after realizing what was happening, had tried to warn the bridge operator, to no avail.

"Our friend Steve, the other guy who was there, turned back and waited, and he looked up, and Fred was on the bridge on the draw bridge section as it was going up," he said.

"I don’t know if he realized he had gone too far, and I guess the bridge tender didn't hear my friend yelling as he was up in the air."

"He slid down the bridge and fell in between the section of the bridge that moves and the fixed part of the roadway."

The entire incident was captured on surveillance camera, which police are now reviewing as part of their investigation.

Medina, an avid cyclist, logged more than 22k miles and almost 1,200 hours in the saddle last year alone, according to his Strava app.

A former managing director for BBC Latin America, he is survived by his wife and two children.