A man has died after he was struck by an ambulance while riding his bicycle on Tucsonβs east side Wednesday morning.
Just before 4:45 a.m., officers were sent to the intersection of North Craycroft Road and East Towner Street after receiving reports of a collision involving a bicyclist and a San Carlos EMS ambulance. Terry Lee Sellers, 30, was pronounced dead at the scene, Tucson police said.
Detectives determined that Sellers was riding his gas-powered bicycle east, through the parking lot of a medical center, when he exited onto Craycroft. He was then struck by an ambulance that was traveling south in the curb lane, police said.
Police said the ambulance was not responding to an emergency and Sellers did not have working brakes on his bicycle. The bicycle did have a white light on the front and a red light on the back, but it is unknown if those lights were on prior to the crash.
The ambulance driver immediately stopped and cooperated with the investigation, police said. It was determined that the driver was not impaired.
Failure to yield from a private drive by Sellers is the major contributing factor in the collision, police said. No charges or citations have been issued.
Close to 43,000 people died in a traffic crash in 2021, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's up from about 39,000 deaths in 2020.
Jamie Donnelly covers breaking news for the Arizona Daily Star. Contact her via e-mail at jdonnelly@tucson.com
