A 66 year old Russian cyclist was killed on Tuesday in a traffic accident at kilometer 57 of the N-332 variant in Torrevieja, close to the Parque de las Naciones. The accident occurred at around 15.45 in the afternoon and thescene was attended by medical services and Traffic officers from theCivil Guard.

The cyclist was traveling in the direction of Alicante when he was hit by a vehicle, driven by a 33 year old Briton, the impact throwing him several metres from the road. The medical services say that, such were the extent of his injuries, that they could not do anything to save his life. The driver of the car is understood to have fled the scene but reported shortly afterwards to the Local Police in Rojales.

The accident occurred in an area with a high density of traffic density, with a daily average flow of approximately 40,000 cars, and where overtaking has been prohibited since 2014, and although it is unusual to see cyclists on this stretch of road it is not prohibited.

The fatal accident took place a few meters from the end of a traffic black spot where a number  of serious accidents have occurred in the last ten years and where vehicles cannot exceed 70 kilometres per hour.

Tuesdays fatality can be added to a long list of recent accidents involving cyclists that has occurred in the province of Alicante. On March 8 a cyclist died in San Fulgencio when he collided with a vehicle on a county road in the municipality. During the past year, 38 cyclists have died on Spanish roads in traffic accidents – four hundred in the last decade – according to statistics from the Traffic Department.